My BRUTALLY HONEST REVIEW of NEVER LET GO!

Never Let Go is a relatively short film these days, at 101 minutes, but still feels the need to split itself into three chapters: The Rope Is Your Lifeline, How Do I Feed My Children? and What Will Become Of Us?

Centred around a ‘Momma’ and her two sons, Halle Berry (The Union) tells Samuel (Anthony B Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) they can never leave their house without tying a rope around them – as they head out each day to forage for food – in order to find their way back, because she believes she sees The Evil every time they step out, even though when we do get to see what she’s apparently hassled by early on, it looks like an old white woman who dribbles a lot.

However, she’s convinced this entity has caused the end of the world, making this feel very reminiscent of 10 Cloverfield Road, and probably countless other things before then.

Neither of the children wants to test the theory of letting go of the rope to see what might happen, and whether or not The Evil is real, and in turn, whether their mum is just completely around the fucking bend.

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All the said, in what’s meant to be some sort of thriller/mystery, I was more left wondering why her two sons have different skin tones. Did the casting department take a day off?

And why did I have the pick the screening where there was a couple in front of me, another behind me, another behind them, and another on the back row to the far right. Oh, and another couple right at the back, who enabled the torch on his phone at one point in the darkened room, and took an age to switch it off! Oh, and the young woman to my right who kept texting someone during the film. Yes, we can see when your phone lights up!

How I wish I’d ditched the Premiere seats on that occasion, and just sat in a closer ‘cheap seat’ away from the idiots. If you’re then wondering why I didn’t move, it’s because 90% of the film is practically in the dark, so if I’d tried to move, I’d have left something behind or dropped something etc, so it would’ve ended about as well as the time spent watching this awful dross.

And if you’re wondering why I didn’t say something to the most troublesome types, it’s because one was the couple in the far corner, so I’d have to get past ‘phone girl’ to get to them, and the other couple were the ones behind the ones behind me. I did hear someone shush one of these at one point, though, and the corner couple did leave about an hour in.

For anyone who knows the Trafford Centre Odeon, it’s one of the rooms where there’s two rows of Premiere seats in the upper-middle area of the room. This affliction affects screens 8-11, and 16-19.

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Now let’s talk about the aspect ratio, since when I saw aYoutube trailer, it looked like a typical 2.39:1 movie that fills such a screen, but as it began, I realised the screen didn’t shift from 1.85:1 to 2.39:1, so was it 1.85:1? No, there were still some black bars, making me think it was one of those arty-farty directors shooting in 2.00:1 – such as Megalopolis – which appeals to precisely nobody.

But it wasn’t that, either, as director Alexandre Aja (Oxygen) said “hold my beer“, since according to IMDB, it’s… 2.11:1. Hence, because no cinema seems to understand how to we don’t have the image is treated as if it’s 1.85:1, so we had letterboxing all around and it looked ridiculous.

When they’re aiming for a cinema release, I wish they wouldn’t mess about with various inbetween ratios, and just go for 1.85:1 or 2.39:1, since any cinema I go to doesn’t factor in anything else for an aspect ratio.

But back to the film… Never Let Go? Never Go In, morelike! What an utter tedious pile of crap, leaving you not caring in the slightest as to whether or not there’s The Evil out there.

There is no mid- or post-credit scene.

Never Let Go is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.

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Never Let Go – Official Trailer – Lionsgate

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Detailed specs:

Cert:
Running time: 101 minutes
Release date: September 27th 2024
Studio: Lionsgate
Aspect Ratio: 2.11:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 0/10

Director: Alexandre Aja
Producers: Alexandre Aja, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, Shawn Levy
Screenplay: Kevin Coughlin, Ryan Grassby
Music: Robin Coudert

Cast:
Momma: Halle Berry
Samuel: Anthony B Jenkins
Nolan: Percy Daggs IV
The Evil: Stephanie Lavigne
Father: William Catlett
Paramedic: Christin Park
The Stranger: Matthew Kevin Anderson
Young Girl: Mila Morgan
Young Girl: Cadence Compton
Old Man: Georges Gracieuse

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