Never Let Go had a lot of promise, but I’m tired of bad Hollywood endings
Full spoilers ahead Never let go to follow.
Never let go is the latest film from the successful production company Lionsgate, a studio known for its massive horror franchise Saw, as well as popular action franchises The Hunger Games And John Wick (for which a trailer was recently released Ballerina). Although this creepy survival horror was a hit, giving off similar vibes A quiet placehad potential, it really ran out of steam in the third act.
It’s annoying that this often happens with new films. While I’m not completely against mystery and questions, sometimes it feels like the script was missing something and the outcome could leave the audience disappointed, and hungry for something they’ll never get. That was certainly the case Never let go, who teased this big, evil threat and then disappeared at the very end.
Movies shouldn’t have to explain too much of what’s going on, but it’s nice when they give it to us something to work with. For me, Never let go was so ambiguous it was frustrating, leaving me with more questions than I had going in, which is never a good sign.
Evil, which has just been called ‘Evil’, is this seemingly great threat that has taken over the world and Mama (even she has no name) and her two boys as the only survivors. Eventually we find out this is a lie, and it literally doesn’t go any further. The boys go to this civilization that they’ve been sheltered from all their lives, and that’s it. We don’t find out what it is, if it was all in their mother’s head or if it’s a demonic figure isolated in their remote cabin.
The boys couldn’t see The Evil, but it still doesn’t answer why it was so central to their lives all these years. A lot was wrong and despite the good performances and the creepy atmosphere, the story was lacking compared to the best horror films.
Should we do away with ambiguous endings entirely?
No, not wholebut it seems that they occur in abundance and the result is not always good. But as we have seen in film history, it can be done very well. Take a look Commencement – one of the best Christopher Nolan films – and the now iconic totem ending. We never find out whether Cobb was in the real world or not, but considering the richness of the hours leading up to that final shot, the ending is memorable. Frustrating, sure, but that’s what it is Great.
Never let go was unable to reach those heights because we knew little about the threat to begin with. There was little to keep the audience engaged, I found myself bracing for another scare where Mom would see another manifestation of The Evil, but that had more to do with loud audio cues than me being scared of the antagonist. I don’t really care if I know Nothing about what comes up to scare me in the first place. Building knowledge is important.
The ending is tricky, but many big-budget films struggle to stick the landing. A good example of this is the terrible one from Lionsgate Borderlands, which offended video game fans everywhere and then culminated in an unsatisfying conclusion. Not ambiguous, just plain boring. Can you say I absolutely loved it? In all seriousness, if you want to read my takedown of Borderlands, here’s why I called it the death of good video game adaptations.
It’s not all bleak though: 2024 has seen a lot of great films, and A24 in particular has been leading the way with recent films like I saw the TV glow And MaXXXineone of five A24 films I couldn’t wait to see in 2024 – both of which reached the all-important finale. I just wish the bigger names would follow suit.
