Spoilers below for any horror fans who haven’t yet watched Never Let Go, so be warned!
A movie that feels like it would fit snugly in M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography, Alexandre Aja’s latest dread-inducing film Never Let Go is a journey into the woods that may traumatize some viewers, while leaving others scratching their heads over what they just witnessed. The 2024 horror movie tells the trauma-soaked tale of a mother whose die-hard attempts to keep her two sons safe may or may not be causing them more damage, but are Mama’s fears about the mysterious Evil legitimate or mere lunacy?
Halle Berry Shares Candid Insight Into Mama’s Psychological Issues
Throughout the runtime of Never Let Go, audiences are firmly aware that Mama is the only character who initially sees all the supposed corpses and ghosts out there just waiting for Nolan or Sam to wander off without a rope. That changes later in the movie, when Nolan starts reaching his wit’s end out in the darkness following Mama’s self-inflicted death, and when Sam appears to be taken over by the Evil as they’re flown away to civilization. We’re left with the belief that at least one of them is now possessed, but is that the case?
Speaking at a Q&A at the horror film’s premiere at Fantastic Fest, Halle Berry didn’t so specifically spell out “Yes” or “No” regarding the film’s potentially supernatural threats, but shared her insight into where Mama’s head was at during the course of the movie, tying things back to the unspoken, but clearly impactful, events from her past. She started by saying:
This mother was a unique mother, and she was dealing with her own traumas of her past and, I think, her own psychological issues. I mean, imagine. As if our Mama didn't have enough psychological issues spilled into her. Because I think, as parents, we pour into our children and then we spill into our children --- and so this mother already had so much spilled into her from her family of origin, from her own mother and her own father's dysfunction.
It does seem like Berry and Alexandre Aja were on the same page when it came to what Mama dealt with as a youth being raised by her parents, and then what she may have suffered through upon meeting and marrying her husband. The movie’s narrative alleges that Mama murdered all three of the above, but without offering clear motivations beyond whatever underlying mental struggles are present. And her mournful reflecting about her hubby makes it appear like she didn’t necessarily want him to die.
Though she doesn’t dig into what those earlier years of her character’s life were like before she became Mama proper, Berry points out that regardless of the potential for supernatural entities, there should be no question in anyone’s minds about whether Mama is mentally disturbed or not, since she’s most definitely been broken down by her self-imposed living situation. The Oscar-winner continued:
But then imagine growing two children, having given birth in a house and never leaving that house for ten years, and then feeling an evil outside of the house, whether that evil was generated by her, because she's really schizophrenic, or whether that evil was really real. If we want to go into our movie world and say that evil really was real, because in our movie, our boys say Mama killed her mother, her father and her husband, so maybe that evil that she created, that she brought to the world --- she also said that in the movie --- sort of sequestered her into this house. Whatever you believe to be true after watching the movie, growing two children in a house in the middle of the woods all by yourself, you've been made crazy. That's crazy-making, right? That's fucking crazy-making. So at the end of the day, why she's crazy isn't the question, I think. It's undeniable: she's crazy, she's been made crazy for some reason, that way, or made that way. She's struggling to keep it all together, but at the end of the day, she loves these boys, right?
Berry's take on the movie's events do sound like she leans more into the idea that the Evil is more of a contagious figment of Mama's traumatized brain, potentially as a form of schizophrenia, rather than a full-on paranormal presence. But she still allows for something darker and more malicious to be the overhanging cause for the last decade of this family's sordid existence, for any horror fans choosing to go that route. Which I had until hearing that answer.
Halle Berry's Explanation Gives The Movie A More Horrifying And Depressing Edge
More times than not, I'm fully comfortable suspending all disbeliefs when watching genre movies, and I admittedly love when a project like this keeps things open-ended for audiences to interpret as they choose. But for Never Let Go's specific storyline, it's almost imperative to buy into the Evil being real as a means of justifying Mama raising two kids without any access to grocery stores, medical professionals, formal education, entertainment, etc.
Because if I sit back and readily dwell in the supposition that mental illness is the only factor that inspired Mama's heightened worries, her strict forms of discipline, the wood etchings and rituals, and the refusal to seek out other lifeforms...then it becomes one of the saddest horror movies of all time. Halle Berry’s critically applauded performance alongside her similarly excellent co-stars Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins really sell how dire their situation is, and it breaks my brain to believe it was all for naught.
Especially when reflecting on the tree bark dinner scene, where the two boys struggle in different ways with their dismal reality, as well as the emotionally debilitating debate about killing the dog that sent everything over the edge. I have to believe that was a conversation brewed by necessity, and not unhealthy circumstance.
Taken at face (and phantom limb) value, the final shot of the movie that's centered on Sam's Polaroid selfie seems to be a piece of definitive proof that the Evil that frightened Mama for all those years was indeed genuine. And if it's all right with everyone else, I'll be right over here feeling just fine about thinking the Evil exists in the most literal sense.
Never Let Go is currently in theaters, and was in fourth place at the box office following its first weekend, though only earning $4.5 million across more than 2.600 screens. Here’s hoping it keeps bringing the bucks in to keep mid-sized horror movies on the map, even if it’s the heavily wooded part of the map set far away from suburbs and cities.
