Years have passed since the controversial 2004 film “High Tension” and Alexandre Aja has proved a lot of genre enthusiasts wrong by now displaying a great talent in orchestrating adjoining and vivid scenes. In his latest film “Crawl”, Aja manages to use a different formula that allows him to create a gripping, if not a unique, horror experience. Aja has always been known for his single setting films and this week he comes back with the very same.
Though the director Aja’s USA setting remains the same, the series itself is told in an entirely new way this time it is the story of a mother’s experience that showcases the extent she has to go in order to protect her children. The mother’s experience is also combined with a father’s experience that adds greater emphasis and sentiment to the series. There are also a number of undeveloped ideas surrounding the father and mother’s overprotective copies that surrounded the theme of evil and experienced COVID metaphor imagery.
This time, the screenplay is the weak link in an otherwise impressive concept. But it’s hard to grasp the essence or the meaning of “Never Let Go” as the film feigns eloquence and subtlety, whilst failing to provide any value. “Never Let Go” lacks a coherent idea and multi dimensional value, which makes it impossible for the ideas compulsion to work coherently. The narrative is adorable, but empty and very thin.
The plot of the film “Never Let Go” centers on mother and her two kids she is less than ideal, however only there three characters a mother (Halle Berry) and her two sons, Nolan, (Percy Diggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins). There are also several rules which make the first act of ‘Never Let Go’ quite similar to ‘A Quiet Place’, where we find a making families fighting against the evil of the world surrounding their refuge.
The most important of these was that they had to stay tied to a rope which was connected to their cabin when they went for example on a food foraging mission or on a picnic. Mama tells the boys about the great evil that is waiting to wriggle into them any time they leave the rope behind. Whether that rope can be interpreted as masks/vaccines for a family during a quarantine, to you say but this evil which only she can see and which is represented by one of her beloved widow women and horrible, abusive husband, will always appear on her shoulders. The ‘evil’ will always, if it had the chance, get to infect her or the boys, making it impossible for that trifecta to leave the house with its maintained supplies.
The continuous mumbling by the other characters that Nolan alone can hear only aggravates doubt in Nolan’s mind about the frightening creations that his mother claims to witness and, to give credit to the makeup team, appear to have been crafted quite well. We too, at the climax of the picture, entertain such thoughts. Could it be the case that those visions are merely mental representations resulting from excessive torture experienced by mother over time?
Maybe all these are just pictures of the horrors associated with mental disorders. As the three of them go further down the path of starvation, the two boys turn on each other. Nolan begins to falter, while Samuel remains by mother. It results in a conflict over the actual nature of the forest and the question of whether Nolan and Samuel should fear it or their mother even more.
There is a plethora of ideas in “Never Let Go” but unfortunately many of them remain unexplored. According to Berry during the film’s premiere at the Fantastic Fest, there was hope that it’s a film that people will be going round thinking about days later. Regardless, such probably is a folly as apparitions coming from this movie’s subjects can be harmful, the more one ponders over them.
The significant failure is the missed chance to really explore the throughline of KC Coughlin & Ryan Graysby’s script that had the most potential; the perhaps mom went mad long ago. There is not nearly enough development of this theme by Berry as she tends to be over-protective in most instances which makes it seem that there is a version of this film where she could be a more sinister figure.
She describes an evil that possessed her in this world some years back, a world she claims is lost. We have as much reason to believe this as the boys. It is apparent that this character has to be projecting a delusion of a goddess who carried some trauma and potential madness in each of her bones and every line reading, but Berry makes too many simple decisions for that role which is so complicated.
The most memorable scenes of the movie “Never Let Go” played out because of the direction of Aja and his hired team to carry it out. The role of background and the places Aja is fascinated with make for something that even the protagonists do not see at first before it draws the audience’s attention. Aja has also established a collaborative relationship with cinematographer Maxime Alexandre in films like “Crawl” and “Oxygen”, and this is also evident in this film. It is a great looking movie with great visuals accentuated by Robin Couverte’s strong score.
Though these aspects are impressive, Aja is not able utilize them well enough in order to salvage the impact that this movie goes without. Or, I should say, many impacts. Aja’s best films have thrust, a momentum where I am constantly rushed towards a certain direction going down towards an ever increasing speedy track. This one never establishes that pace, hence some of its best ideas are wasted whilst in the hunt for its more idiotic ones. Aja will bounce back, most likely with the current work in progress “Crawl 2.” Until then, we will all have forgotten about this one.
For more movies like Never Let Go visit 123Movies.