Halle Berry made all kinds of hearts and minds swoon on Mother’s Day thanks to her bare-butt pic being shared by her partner, but the Oscar winner is provoking some far different reactions with the first trailer for her upcoming horror movie Never Let Go, which is the latest directorial effort from The Hill Have Eyes’ Alexandre Aja. Less showing ass and more hauling ass here.
Never Let Go appears to be in the same genre milieu as A Quiet Place and Birdbox, centering on a mother and her two sons living alone and far from whatever remains of civilization, with seeming threats lurking everywhere outside the home. Such ghouls and frightshows inspire the survival tactic of tying a rope around one’s waist upon venturing outside, so that one can be pulled back to the safety of their home if something goes sideways.
Naturally, things go sideways rather quickly for the family, as the two brothers begin to question their situation, and look as if they’ll have to face repercussions for doubting the dangers surrounding them. Like the well creature seen below.
Percy Daggs IV's character looks to be walking beyond his normal route when the rope tied around him snaps back and drags him close to a well, as opposed to the mechanism within the house itself. We only catch a glimpse of the creature inside, but it's weird enough to be spooky, with a head shaped like a fat skull, and a body covered in reptilian scales.
Yikes. An image of Percy Daggs IV's character pops up as Halle Berry's matriarch is walking around outdoors, and the kid absolutely looks worse for wear. The neck is all L-shaped like Bent Neck Lady in Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House, and I'm not sure what fucked up half of his face, but I'm pretty positive it's nothing I'd like to run into while trying to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Speaking of things to avoid at all costs, there's this ghoulish woman who might not be quite so frightening if she kept her mouth closed. But no, it's wide open as she crawls around, giving audiences a full view of her pitch black tongue with its forked tip. Do I desperately hope that she gets to lick someone with that nasty-ass tongue? Absolutely. As well as an ice cream cone.
Is There An M. Night Shyamalan-Esque Twist At Play?
Even though Alexandre Aja's filmography isn't one filled with projects hinging on plot twists and gamechanging reveals, there are moments within the Never Let Go trailer that make me think something fishy is happening with these characters. And I'm wondering if this movie will pull a similar move as M. Night Shyamalan's The Village by revealing that this survivalist family is living their tortured existence just outside normal civilization.
We've already talked about the brothers questioning the reality of their situation, which is informed only by Halle Berry's character talking about the world having ended, and that remaining tethered to the house is their only chance to stay alive. One line in the trailer specifically states that the mom never lied to her sons before, which to me seems like a big ol' warning sign that mom has been lying THE WHOLE TIME.
If that wasn't suspicious enough, it's not exactly clear whether or not the two boys actually see any of the ghostly entities that pop up in the trailer, or if it's just Berry's character who sees them. The part with the kid being pulled back towards the well seems to go against my theory, but that could easily be an editing maneuver.
The last bit of circumstantial evidence pointing to Halle Berry's character being solely responsible for this unfortunate lifestyle is the moment in the trailer where the mother appears to be locking one or both of her sons in a crawlspace below the floor, as well as the other threatening moves she makes with them. Using a knife to threaten a child into memorizing a survival tactic seems anti-intuitive, no?
Never Let Go will arrive in theaters on Friday, September 27, 2024, so be sure to keep your strongest rope handy. Head to our 2024 movie schedule to see what else is heading to the big screen in the near future, and keep an eye out for Halle Berry's new movie with Mark Wahlberg, The Union, when it hits Netflix in August.
