Never Let Go (2024) review – Alexandre Aja Wastes A Solid Premise On Nonsensical Twists

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are checking out suspenseful horror movie Never Let Go by Alexandre Aja of High Tension fame.

An interesting concept

The story here follows a family, consisting of two young boys, Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins), and their mother (Halle Berry), living deep in the middle of the forest in a world overcome by evil. Every day they venture out to seek food but they must stick to one simple rule: they can’t let go of the rope that attaches them to the safety of their house, lest the evil consume them.

“It’s a fascinating and compelling story outline. Unfortunately, everything that takes place within the middle of those lines is lustreless, woefully predictable and, simply, not that good.”

The concept is pretty damn solid. A post-apocalyptic world inhabited by an overwhelming evil that will compel you to harm those you love. A desperate fight for survival against the unseen foes of starvation and loneliness. The absolute need to stay connected to a long rope to prevent bad things happening. It pretty much writes itself. Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby have put together a fairly compelling story outline.

Unfortunately, that is all that Never Let Go is. It’s a fascinating and compelling story outline. Everything that takes place within the middle of those lines is lustreless, woefully predictable and, simply, not that good.

It’s somewhat strange because horror movies can exist at a high level based purely off of a simple concept like this. Look at the amount of tension in films like Don’t Breathe. It’s a simple idea — they have to stay completely silent – but it really works. A Quiet Place gets a ton of mileage out of a very similar, equally simple, concept. You don’t need a perfect story; you just need some tension and a few scares.

It’s just very disappointing

Despite the compelling premise, Never Let Go repeatedly disappoints. There wasn’t a single moment where the driving force behind the story actually made for a decent scare. There’s no sense of urgency to indulge in the fear that can be created from the “never let go” rule and it never feels like anything more than a gimmick.

In fact, the monsters, evil, and threats buried within the forest play second fiddle to Momma’s increasingly maniacal idea of parenting – something which only adds to how damn predictable this movie is.

It took five minutes for me to call the eventual outcome of the movie. Five, damn, minutes. It is abundantly obvious and having the revelation of what is actually going on hugely impacts enjoyment of the next hour and a half. Not that there is all that much to enjoy. You see every single scene coming way before it does and you can predict every single plot twist and turn.

This is, very much, one of those movies that likes to think it is far smarter than it actually is. Horror movies of this ilk love to insult the viewer’s intelligence and their assumption that people won’t see what is going on is arrogant to say the least. I imagine most horror fans will clock the real meaning of this story very early in the movie. That’s no surprise, though. This is an Alexandre Aja-directed film, after all.

More of Alexandre Aja’s trademark horror shenanigans

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Alexandre Aja’s direction. When the story is simple, he does fine but, when it isn’t, he ties himself in knots. High Tension is such an utterly ridiculous movie that gets far more praise than it ever deserved. It attempts to trick and confuse viewers with its big final reveal, only to offer a bunch of exposition that makes no sense at all. It is the veritable Swiss cheese of the horror world; overrated and full of plot holes.

“It’s a fascinating and compelling story outline. Unfortunately, everything that takes place within the middle of those lines is lustreless, woefully predictable and, simply, not that good.”

Aja’s desire to confuse and befuddle means he will take a fairly simple story and twist it up until it is entirely unrecognisable, purely so he can say “You didn’t see that coming, did you?”. Even when you did see that coming, you just didn’t think it made any sense. Aja does the same thing here. He attempts to lead the viewer in one direction, before twisting into another, then back to the previous one and then back again just for good measure.

When considered as a whole, the story of Never Let Go is confused and nonsensical. My fiancée was reading people’s opinions on Never Let Go after watching, and it is very clear that people are completely confused by the ending and that is for one simple reason: it makes no damn sense. It is a truly awful ending that plays a game of “is it or isn’t it” with the viewer that, by this point, only adds to the repetitious nature of the movie.

It is a very clear example of Aja wanting to have his storytelling cake and eat it. A classic trait of his and something that makes his movies a questionable investment of time. It’s the movie-making equivalent of a magician making something disappear only for you to see it poking out of his sleeve. Still, a lot of people won’t even be looking at the sleeve, too enthralled by the trick, so will probably enjoy it anyway.

Generally underwhelming

On the plus side, cinematography is very nice. The setting is incredible and the woods look like something out of a fairy tale. The nods to the story of Hansel and Gretel throughout lead me to believe that this was very intentional. The earlier parts of the movie have a small amount of tension. It never amounts to anything, though. Aja frequently resorts to violence towards animals to try and provoke investment and gross out the viewer. Whether it is eating them or a needless scene with the family dog, it feels pretty cheap and low-brow.

Halle Berry seems very checked out here. I find Berry to be one of those actors who is either amazing or not very good at all with little in between. Here, her accent is poorly done, she’s a bit cheesy, and often seems disinterested.

“Repetitive, not at all scary, poorly performed and extremely boring, this is a movie that has little going for it. Just skip it and watch something else.”

The child actors are a mixed bag with Percy Daggs IV, as Nolan, being pretty great in certain parts. But Anthony B. Jenkins, as Samuel, feels like one of those kids that was pushed into it by their parents and doesn’t really want to do it. His delivery is, at times, very stilted. By about halfway, the characters of Momma and Samuel were annoying the hell out of me. At least part of that is down to the performers.

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Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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