Never Let Go Ending Explained: What’s Really Going On In Halle Berry’s New Horror Movie?

This article is part of IGN’s Fantastic Fest coverage and contains detailed spoilers for its opening film, Never Let Go, starring Halle Berry and directed by Alexandre Aja.

Are you wondering if? Never let it go Does it have a post-credits scene? We’ll tell you right here: there is no post-credits scene even halfway through the movie. Again, there are spoilers from here on out…

A common misconception about explained endings—that term was never meant to be used in the plural—is that they are definitive when, in fact, they are just another critic offering you another opinion in a format that is not a review. I say this because many films do not have a clear, concise ending that means the same thing to everyone who sees it. Alexandre Aja’s latest film, Never Let Go, falls so much into that category that Halle Berry (the film’s star) introduced it at Fantastic Fest with the note “decide what it means to yourself.” And, anecdotally speaking, everyone I spoke to after the screening had a completely different opinion as to what the film’s ending actually means.

With that tremendous grain of salt in mind, let’s begin!

Never Let Go: What is Evil?

A big part of what makes Never Let Go a hit is that you think Mama (Berry) is completely crazy until you realize she’s not. But she is. Or maybe not? Let me explain.

Mom lives alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with her two sons Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV). The family must remain in their house at all times unless they are holding on to a rope tied securely to the cabin’s foundation. You see, when Evil began taking over the world, their father built the house for their mother and gave her the ropes so she could roam the woods. We’re not going to talk about the logistical issues that arise in the film, but what you do need to know is that Evil always has some sort of snake-like quality to it, regardless of what form it takes, and that none of Mom’s children can see these creatures. Only Mom says she can.

Now the biblical implications here are clear from the start, as is the warning of what can happen when one holds on too tightly to one’s beliefs without asking healthy questions. We know that Mom killed her husband, her mother, and his father when Evil touched them; we know that Mom had a dark past and was “saved,” leaning into the trope of “born-again” Christians becoming unwaveringly devout; and we know that Nolan is starting to have questions about the rest of the world.

Those questions, and Mama’s decision to kill the family dog ​​so they won’t starve (it’s actually okay, don’t worry) result in Nolan cutting Mama’s rope, leaving her exposed to Evil. (Note: Nolan, at this point, doesn’t believe in Evil, and is trying to show Mama that they can venture farther in search of food if she’ll just believe him.) Rather than be touched by Evil, and thus, she believes, forced to murder her children with her own hands, she chooses to slit her own throat.

Never Let Go ending explained

After Mom dies (which happens about halfway through the movie, leaving young Jenkins and Daggs IV to run the film and its success) things start to go downhill. And I know that’s saying something, because this family is literally starving. There’s a glimmer of hope when Nolan runs as far away and screams as loud as he can while tied up in a last-ditch effort to save his brother, who is starving faster than he is.

The boys get their first real glimpse of the outside world when a hiker follows Nolan to the house after hearing his calls. But while Nolan sees the hiker as his savior, Samuel immediately believes he has begun seeing demons like his mother. The two argue, with Samuel shooting the man in the belly and Nolan eventually stealing his backpack to get the food he knows the man has.

It’s at this point that Never Let Go changes course. Nolan eats the food freely, savoring it so he can share it with his brother. Samuel adamantly refuses at first, but then greedily devours the food while Nolan sleeps. At this point, one wonders if the can of ravioli and the other food items are the proverbial forbidden apple, and if Nolan and Sam, who have strong Cain and Abel vibes from the start, have simply given in to the temptation of Evil.

But they didn’t. Life-saving food is simply life-saving food, and the hiker was killed for nothing.

Later, the hiker’s daughter shows up and ushers in the beginning of the end. Samuel, seemingly thinking clearly because he has food in his stomach, chases after the hiker’s daughter while apologizing for killing her father. She runs past the end of the rope, Samuel believes it’s real and unties himself, but then she creepily climbs a tree and scares him from behind, vomiting a centipede down his throat. Evil was real.

Except it wasn’t. But it was. (I swear I’m right.)

Now touched by Evil, Samuel returns to his house and sets it on fire, locking Nolan in his mother’s room. Later, he takes a selfie with his mother’s old polaroid with the burning cabin in the background as his brother, he believes, burns to death. However, Nolan hides in the cabin’s basement after confronting Evil disguised as his mother. Instead of choosing hate or fear, Nolan embraces Mama-Evil, who then transforms into regular Evil (a sort of snake-like humanoid) and hugs him in return. Both children survive the fire and are flown out of the woods by helicopter, with the family dog ​​chasing the helicopter safe and sound.

So! What does all that mean? Was Mom crazy? Was she not crazy? Is Evil real or fake? The answer to all that is “yes.”

First, Berry noted in the post-screening Q&A that it’s up to each person to decide whether “the evil comes out of her because she’s schizophrenic” or whether she’s just the way she is because “motherhood drives you crazy.” Given that her mother saw the same things she did, and that schizophrenia runs in families, it seems pretty likely that Mom (and Grandma) needed psychiatric help they weren’t getting. As for the evil, and the kids eventually seeing it, that comes down to a few things, all of which were key to my enjoyment of the film.

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