Editor’s Note: It was a busy opening night at Fantastic Fest with many filmmakers, actors and movie buffs all in attendance for the start of eight days of genre mayhem. My gifted writer Anna Hanks was at the premiere of NEVER LET GO, which was also simulatenously released in theatres everywhere at the same time. Here is her reaction! — JW
It’s hard being a single mother, especially to twin boys. It’s especially hard when you are living off the grid in an apocalyptic setting and trying to protect those boys from a murky evil that lurks in the woods right outside your house. The family is threatened by the same amorphous evil that may or may not be responsible for the deaths of many of their family members.
NEVER LET GO is the new film from Academy Award winner Halle Berry. Berry is a single momma to fraternal twins Sam (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV). The family lives in the woods and sees only each other. The source of their safety is their house, made by their family with intricate carved symbols and incantations. They have multiple rituals to stay safe in their home. When they go outside to forage for food or firewood, they stay connected to that source of safety via scratchy, brown old school rope, often tied around their waists.
We meet the family after a terribly brutal winter, when their stores have almost given out and they are on the verge of starvation. They spend their days eeeking out a bleak existence: hunting squirrels and frogs and insects to stay alive. They have a few small pleasures, like an old victrola, but for the most part their lives are focused on the struggle for survival.
This film confronts us not only with the difficulty of physically surviving without being able to order in groceries, but also with the gulf in what we know and what we believe we know. The film shows the lengths we will go to in order to make sure that we don’t have to leave any systems of belief behind, no matter how they are working for us.
During the Q&A at Fantastic Fest, Berry asked if people would be interested in seeing a prequel or a sequel to answer questions about what happened to the family. The audience enthusiastically responded “YES.” — Anna Hanks
NEVER LET GO was a special, opening night presentation at Fantastic Fest and is now playing in wide release in theatres everywhere. Special thanks for team Fantastic Fest PR for assistance with this article!
