McDaniel
The new Halle Berry horror film “Never Let Go” brings hopeless tension in themes of inherited family trauma and faith.
French director Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes”) tells the story of a mother (Berry) and her two children, who are only able to walk away from their home in the middle of the woods if they have ropes wrapped around their waist connecting them to the house. She tells the kids that the evil outside can’t touch them as long as they stay connected to the house. After all, that’s what her momma taught her.
“What’d it look like this time?” one of her sons asks.
The evil takes many forms, often that of her deceased mother, disturbingly flicking a forked tongue like a snake. But only Berry’s character can see it, leaving the audience to wonder if the evil lurking is real, or if Mom has gone bonkers.
As if a commentary on helicopter parents, we see her instilling fear, keeping her children from experiencing the dangerous world outside, literally tethered to their home.
That theme grows deeper as religious symbolism appears throughout — from the evil taking the form of a snake, to the way the family recites a sort of prayer to the purity of the house, to the kids saying “It’s either the house or the evil.”
Just as a parent’s trauma is often passed down, so too is the influence of religion. And if this story is a metaphor for faith, the same central question is in play: “Is it real?”
After all, isn’t faith believing in things you can’t see?
Berry excels in her role, doing her best work when she’s portraying emotionally drained characters. She teeters on the edge of madness, yet maintains her priority of protecting her children from perceived threats.
There are a handful of effective jump scares, but it is a horror movie that relies on discomfort and uncertainty in a consistently dark and dreary atmosphere, never venturing farther than a rope’s tug from the creepy wooden house.
Some may find a lack of focus in the direction of the film. But it took my mind a number of ways and didn’t force one interpretation, and I like that about it.
The rope is tight in this one, and it doesn’t let the audience get comfortable. “’Never Let Go” crafts a spine-tingling reminder that the ties that bind us can both protect and imprison, leaving us to ponder which is truly more terrifying.
3.5/5
Scott McDaniel is an assistant professor of journalism at Franklin College. He lives in Bargersville with his wife and three kids.
