Never Let Go

This story takes place in a remote forest, location unknown. A mother named “Momma” (Halle Berry) and her two sons Samuel and his younger brother Nolan have been living in the same house for years (for Momma even her parents and grandparents have lived in the house). The reason? Well according to Momma a malevolent entity known as “The Evil” wiped everyone off the planet, leaving only Momma and her sons.

So why are Momma and the boys the lucky (or unlucky) survivors? Well, they have this ritual they perform everytime they exit the house, where they ask the house to bless them and kneel to the ground and pray to the house itself so that they may be protected from The Evil. That’s not even the weirdest part.

Whenever Momma and the boys leave the house, they must each wear a long rope across their waists as they walk into the woods. “Never take it off or The Evil will grab hold of you and never let go,” Mamma says. “Never let go of the rope. Never let go,” the boys remind themselves.

“Do you think The Evil is real, or is Mamma lying to us?” Nolan asks his oldest brother Samuel. “Nolan don’t be stupid, Mamma would never lie to us. She’s just trying to protect us.”

Maybe there is Evil out in the woods. Or maybe, just maybe The Evil is already inside the house. One thing’s for sure…

Never let go, never let go.

The trailers for “Never Let Go” gave me hopes of it becoming a really promising horror film. I had honestly never seen anything by Director Alexander Aja. He tends to focus his films on what may or may not be in the dark and tends to disturb viewers with moderate to heavy amounts of gory violence (such as in “The Hills Have Eyes”). Secular movie critics came to a general consensus that “Never Let Go” was definitely one of Aja’s tamer films. With this in mind, I still walked into the theater with a hope and glimmer that this film wasn’t going to be as disturbing as some reviewers had made it out to be.

While indeed the reviewers were correct on it being tamer than Aja’s previous films, “Never Let Go” still contains massively disturbing moments throughout, including onscreen suicides and children being verbally, physically and psychologically threatened. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I absolutely loathe placing children in danger or in abusive circumstances in film. When I viewed how genuine terror and fear overtakes the children, I almost wept, and I almost walked out of the theater.

A note to horror filmmakers, you don’t need to disturb or use gore in order to create genuine horror films. A psychological or suspenseful film can easily reel audiences into the theater and create some breathtaking moments. Second, children should not be the focus of any horror film, no matter how “tame” people claim the film is.

Lastly, if you’re genuine aim is to frighten the audience, make sure that everything else, like the actual plot, is solid and unpredictable. With “Never Let Go,” I knew what the ending would be within the first 10 minutes, making the film feel even longer than its runtime.

To the film’s credit, the camerawork is pretty impressive. The angling of specific scenes, such as when the children are forced to go into a small crawl space underneath the house to pray to the house, can be truly deceptive and it isn’t till later you see the full scenario that takes place in the crawl space. The special effects, CGI and the like, are actually rather impressive as well. But, unfortunately, these two elements are the film’s only positives.

Objectionable Content

Violence: Extreme. **Note: This is only some of the violent content. There is more than this in the film.**

A skeleton comes to life in a dream and almost attacks someone. A demonic disfigured human figure tries to grab a character. A boy shoots a squirrel with a slingshot and stomps on it. One of the brothers steps on another’s rope from behind causing him to slip out of the rope and tumble to the ground, breaking his ankle. A possessed, demonic being tries to climb up and go after a family.

A character reveals that they killed her parents and her grandparents. A man comes from out of the woods and tells a woman that he will take her children and eat them. In a dream, a crow is seen eating a boy’s face (we see the severely disfigured result). A boy reappears in a dream later, and his neck is snapped. A boy’s rope pulls him toward a well, almost causing him to fall in. There is a clip of a woman eating her son (not much is shown).

A boy locks his mother in a shed without her rope. The boys attack each other. A demon threatens to hurt the boys’ mother and them. A female character slices her own throat in front of children. A hiker is threatened by a boy and his crossbow and shoots him (we watch as the man hemorrhages and chokes on his own blood). Shortly thereafter, a young girl finds out her dad, the hiker, was killed by the boy and runs off. We later see said girl as a possessed figure who touches him and therefore turns him evil.

One brother attacks another brother with a machete. A boy sets a house on fire. A boy falls off a roof. There are discussions about the family running out of food and water and starving to death. As a result, Mamma tells the boys they need to go out back and shoot their family dog, Koda, for food. A spinal cord impaling and skin being ripped from the inside.

Vulgar Language: F***ing (1), A demonic voice says, “You're sitting in my chair, I can see your tushy, I’m gonna make it so that you can sit anywhere."

Profanity: G*d (1)

Nudity: A female character is seen bathing in a tub, bubbles are covering her breasts and genitals. A woman wears a low cut tank-top.

Occult: **Note: This is only a partial list of occultic content**

The occult material in this film is high. As I stated in the violence section, the whole family prays to a house. Demonic possession and disfigured supernatural creatures are scattered throughout the entire film. Characters are seen being turned into possessed and evil creatures.

Other: There are multiple scenes of dead people suddenly appearing—usually bloody. A boy eats a baby frog while it’s alive. A boy screams when his ankle breaks. We bear witness to a skinned, dead squirrel. A young girl’s skeleton is found in the woods. A young boy urniates on himself (not graphic). Boys steal food from a backpack.

Moral

Even in such an appalling film I found something to draw upon. The mother and the boys live in constant fear of the unknown. How do they know The Evil is real? Well, because Momma says so, and that’s enough right? But instead of conquering said fear and embracing the unknown, the characters stay either in the house or only a quarter a mile from it.

Fear is a battle we Christians must fight. Fear also leads to doubt which takes away from our ability to trust in God and in his omnipotence. Fear is from The Evil One and we cannot let it take a foothold.

God is far more powerful than the Devil, his cronies, or anything the world can conjure up. Here are several scriptures that remind us not to fear, but to trust in the Lord God Almighty…

“The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” —Psalm 27:1

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” —Psalm 34:4

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” —2 Timothy 1:7

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” —1 Peter 5:7

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” —Isaiah 41:10

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” —Psalm 46:1

Closing Thoughts

If “Never Let Go” is a tamer film for Alexandre Aja, I wouldn’t want to see what his “regular” films look like. “Never Let Go” is devoid of hope, promise or anything that will strengthen your mind or your Spirit. The violence, as a whole, is nothing to applaud. The occultic content is extremely high in this film, and all of this is wrapped together with children in constant terror, killing people, fighting each other and being possessed themselves!

There is absolutely no reason WHATSOEVER to see “Never Let Go.” It is an abomination to all that true Christians stand for. Skip this film entirely.

• Violence: Extreme
• Occult: Very Heavy
• Vulgar/Crude language: Moderate
• Profane language: Mild
• Nudity: Mild
• Wokeism: Mild
• Sex: None
• Drugs/Alcohol: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.