So, picture a family living in a wooden house way out in the forest. They’re not just chilling there; this is their safe spot from some creepy evil thing that can look like any regular person and mess with your head. The big problem? If you touch it, you’re doomed forever. To stay safe when gathering supplies outside, they keep tied to a rope—yep, that’s mom’s rule for Nolan and Samuel.

Here’s where it gets interesting: only adults can actually see this weird Evil. So, of course, the kids start doubting their mom’s warnings because life’s tough—there’s always that hunger and, honestly, mom seems kind of off her rocker sometimes.

Watching the movie feels kinda like smushing together ‘The Village’ and ‘Bird Box’. You get these clever scenes and a surprise twist you won’t see coming. But occasionally, the story tries to do too much at once and gets messy.

There’s all this spooky stuff going on that secretly says something about being a mom or maybe whether it’s better to be shaped by nature or how you’re raised. It might even shine a light on things like race or mental health issues. Some parts get really intense—like there’s this bizarre creepy chant about blessed wood popping up everywhere—and more gross-out bits than horror (think someone gulping down a live frog!). Director Alexandre Aja throws plenty of unexpected stuff your way!

The movie opens up with a jump scare right in the prologue—it’s almost as if the director knows
So, this movie’s got some wild stuff going on. It’s supposed to be deep and symbolic, but honestly, it falls a bit flat in that department. It’s not super scary either, even though there are some really creepy monsters and gross-out moments.

There’s a bunch of survival rules laid out at first, but by the end, they’re just tossed aside like an old playbook. You start wondering why they didn’t just jump to the chaos from the beginning of “Never Let Go.” Once anything can happen, it’s hard to stay surprised by all the plot twists.

Aja throws a big surprise our way near the end of the second act that makes things interesting again after they’ve dragged for a while. But then nothing else really tops that moment. It ends up feeling kind of anticlimactic—not exactly rewriting the rulebook here.

We’ve got this mom repeating survival rules in rhyme so much that it starts getting on your nerves. They break up the film with chapter headings to make this spooky forest feel more like an eerie ritual or horror story.

They tried mixing post-apocalyptic stuff with fairy tale and folklore horror vibes, but it doesn’t quite work out. Aja is good at setting scenes for sure, but honestly, we’ve seen cooler forests in movies like “Gretel & Hansel” or “The Witch.”
If you’re into movies about motherhood, this one doesn’t pack a punch like “Babadook,” but it’s got its pluses.

The cast really tries to lift the script up. Halle Berry steps out of her usual roles and goes all in, showing us a more fearless side. And those young actors? They bring some real emotion to their scenes—it’s impressive. Still, it feels like they deserved better material.

All in all, “Never Let Go” has its good parts and might entertain you for a bit. But unless you’re super keen on listing every horror flick ever made, you probably won’t remember it for long.