IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched in the cinema (148th visit in 2024)
Schocktober 2024 #1
The central motif of "Never Let Go" sounds so harebrained that it seems, if not pulled by the hair, then at least pulled by a rope. Because in the world of the movie, a rope is the protection against the evil outside; as long as the main characters are connected to their own house with it as the eternal umbilical cord, all the murderous demons that have taken possession of the world cannot harm them. But as soon as the connection is severed for even a few seconds, evil can take over Momma (Halle Berry) and her two 10-year-old sons Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV). At least that's what Momma tells her boys - and that's the crux of the not-so-simple story: Is their mother's story true or madness? Has the whole world around their house and forest really come to an end and is it ruled by an evil that takes many forms and is after their lives and souls as the last human beings? When they leave the house, does their survival really hang on that rope? And is their home really heaven on earth, as they have to repeat mantra-like every day?
The family and one's own home as the last bulwark against a murderous world: this setting has often been encountered in horror films in recent years, for example in "It Comes at Night" or "A Quiet Place". In "Never Let Go", the question of truth remains on a knife-edge most of the time, and it is precisely this balancing act that makes up a large part of the film's suspense.
Although we repeatedly see the terrifying demons creeping around the house, sometimes assuming the form of the boys' dead father or Momma's mother and trying to sneak in with this trick, the production makes it clear that we are taking Momma's perspective - evil remains invisible to the twins. And so Samuel in particular, the more skeptical of the boys, begins to have doubts about the strange belief system he and Nolan have grown up with. The situation is exacerbated when the family can no longer find enough food in the immediate vicinity, i.e. within the radius of the rope. Hunger drives a wedge into the family, and when strangers appear who don't seem at all like demons, the conflicts escalate.
For long stretches, Alexandre Aja balances the mixture of horror film, survival and psychological thriller well, with a great sense of atmosphere and psychological ambiguity. Only in the final third does he handle the standard situations a little too transparently. The fact that the minimalist plot works well is also thanks to Halle Berry, who delivers a powerful performance. However, the film is most interesting as a parable on political isolationism and the perfidious logic with which conspiracy ideological systems of thought always confirm themselves.
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