Never Let Go is a high-concept horror movie that revolves around a key question – here we explain what it all means, plus how the movie sets up a sequel that would be tough to watch.
Alexandre Aja knows his way around a horror movie, having burst onto the genre scene with Switchblade Romance in 2003, which he followed with The Hills Have Eyes, Maniac, Horns, and Crawl.
Never Let Go – which debuted at Fantastic Fest last night before hitting US screens today – is his latest scary movie, in which Halle Berry plays a strict matriarch trying to protect her twin boys from monsters hiding in the woods that encircle their cabin.
To protect them from that unseen evil, the family must stay tethered to a rope that’s tied to the house, which is why they must “never let go.” Below we’ll explain what’s really going down, so beware of SPOILERS ahead…
Is Momma lying throughout Never Let Go?
While there’s doubt and ambiguity concerning Momma’s intentions throughout Never Let Go, at the very end of the movie, we see that Momma wasn’t lying, and the monsters are very much real.
Though a smart script by Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, as well as Aja’s sharp direction, Never Let Go has you wondering if the evil is real, or a figment of Momma’s imagination. Worse still, it could be a lie she uses to manipulate, coerce, and control her own children.
When one of her boys starts to doubt their existence, it sets off a chain reaction that sees Momma kill herself, and the boys turn on each other. But we still don’t know if the monsters are real, or the result of a mind broken by hunger and trauma.
But right at the end of the movie – in a photograph that was taken during the action-packed finale – a monster can be seen over the shoulder of one of the twins. Thereby confirming their existence, once-and-for-all.
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Does Never Let Go have a post-credits scene?
No, Never Let Go does not have a post-credits scene. But the final sequence could be viewed as setting up a potential sequel.
During the finale, that evil is still with them as the boys are choppered to safety, doing exactly what Momma warned them it would in terms of getting in their heads, destroying the love inside, and pushing brother to turn on brother.
While in the air, one of the boys hears the words: “she loves me more.” A phrase that was whispered at the start of the movie to pit the siblings against each other.
Meaning this is where a sequel could begin, with the brothers facing off against each other as well as the monster, only this time in a city rather than the countryside.
But that’s a sequel I definitely don’t want to see. Never Lot Go is a beautifully crafted horror movie. But it’s also a tough watch, being relentlessly downbeat and depressing.
Watching these poor boys continue to battle each other in a Never Let Go 2 would be unbearable, so I hope a sequel never happens, and I can continue pretend they banish the evil before the chopper lands, sp the two lads live happily ever after.
Never Let Go is now un US cinemas, before hitting UK theaters on September 27. For more horror, check out our list of the best films at FrightFest, or alternatively more movies out this month.
