Review: 'Never Let Go' aims to be a taut post-apocalyptic thriller, but there's too much slack in the narrative to be worthy of Halle Berry's scary-good performance

If one good performance was enough to carry a labored horror premise, “Never Let Go” could be a masterpiece. Instead, it’s a curiosity, notable for Halle Berry doing good work in spite of what’s happening around her.

Berry plays a mother, living in a cabin in the woods with her twin sons, Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV). We’re told that something horrible has happened in the outside world, a malevolent presence (voiced by Stephanie Lavigne) that has infected nearly everyone. 

The only way to keep the evil from getting in, Mama tells her boys, is to respect the protection of the cabin — and, when venturing outside, always stay connected to the long rope that is tied to the cabin’s foundation.

The question that writers Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby pose here is simple: Is it true that the world is falling apart and evil has overtaken everything but this cabin? Or is Mama crazy, and has been lying to her boys while they starve because they’re running out of provisions?

The twins soon find themselves on opposite sides of that binary question — and the search for the answer is what will upend this family in ways they don’t see coming.

Unfortunately, we see it all coming, even with all the jump scares and brooding theatrics that director Alexandre Aja (“Crawl”) throws on the screen to distract us. 

Thankfully, Berry understands how to make this either/or story work — and that’s to not take sides. Berry gets that a mom going nuts and a mom fending off a world gone mad aren’t that different in their reactions, and plays this Mama in such a way that either outcome makes sense. Or, at least, more sense than this frustratingly ambivalent movie chooses to be.

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“Never Let Go’

★★

Opens Friday, September 20, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong violent content and grisly images. Running time: 101 minutes.