Parents' Guide to Never Let Go

Tense, well made, and well acted, this survival horror/thriller nonetheless leaves off with a sense of frustration, shying away from fully exploring its powerful themes. Directed by Alexandre Aja, whose most interesting previous efforts, Crawl and Oxygen, are both claustrophobic movies with one or two characters, Never Let Go might have joined them if it hadn't tried to be too ambitious. The movie attempts to keep viewers second-guessing with the concept of whether there actually is an Evil in the woods or whether it's a human construct; whenever anyone comes up with a logical argument against the Evil's existence, the reply is "that's what it wants you to think!"

This could mirror certain real-life situations in a fascinating way, but the movie seems less interested in ideas than in being a generic scary movie, so it drops the ball. There are also themes of motherhood that might have been explored (the ropes can be seen as metaphorical umbilical cords), but the movie stays on the surface. Most unsettling is watching the boys—and especially the family's poor dog—go through their terrible trials without the wisdom or maturity they'd need to fight. Never Let Go had strong potential, but, especially with its frustrating final "gotcha" negating any interesting arguments it might have posed, it ends with a sense of dark disappointment.