Never Let Go ★★★
FRENCH director Alexandre Aja’s Hollywood experience hasn’t been entirely successful,
Yes, I’m sure he has made a nice living from films like Piranha 3D and Crawl, but critically he’s been a little disappointing.
Aja burst onto the horror scene in 2003 with the great High Tension and followed-up with a strong remake of The Hills Have Eyes in 2006 but his output since then hasn’t included anything on the same level.
His latest, the survival horror thriller Never Let Go, is something of a return to form with an interesting story, strong atmospherics and a few genuine scares.
Halle Berry is good as the widowed mother of two young boys living in a ramshackle farmhouse on the edge of a remote forest.
In this world, something horrible has happened to civilisation. We don’t know what, but we do know the family cannot go outside without remaining linked, both physically and psychologically, to their home.
They accomplish this by using long, thick ropes, tied around their waists and secured to the inside of the house whenever they venture out for food, exercise and sunlight.
This has been their lot for as long as the boys can remember, with ‘Momma’ warning there is an evil spirit outside the home that will consume them. Momma knows because she is the only one who can see the Evil that manifests in different, decaying human forms.
Following a near-miss incident, the older boy starts to question his mother’s motivations, wondering whether the Evil is real or just her way of maintaining control over their lives and protecting herself from her own inner demons.
At its core, Never Let Go is about the lengths a parent to which a parent will go to protect their children, set within a narrative that resembles a Grimms fairy tale
Aja is an uncompromising director who doesn’t shirk from tough, emotional scenes that are also driven by the strong acting, particularly from Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins who play the two boys.
If it wasn’t an original story, written by KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, it has all the hallmarks of a Stephen King penned short story, which is a pretty good recommendation.
Watched at the cinema.