Never Let Go Horror Film Director Interview: Ending, Interpretations

Once you see Never Let Go, the latest film from director Alexandre Aja (Crawl, Horns, The Hills Have Eyes), you won’t be able to stop thinking about it. It’s one of those movies that’s both scary and interesting but also keeps you guessing about what actually happened long after you leave the theater. Is the film being truthful with you? How do you interpret what’s going on? Did what you saw actually happen? If so, what does that mean?

Now in theaters, Never Let Go stars Halle Berry as a mother who lives in a remote cabin with her two sons. According to her, the world has ended and the only way to keep away from “the Evil” is to stay in the cabin. When they do have to go out though, they must remain connected to a rope to maintain contact with the house. If they don’t, the Evil will take them.

Is that actually true? Or is mom crazy and just making her kids believe what she wants them to believe? The film leaves you guessing up until the very end and, after the screening at Fantastic Fest 2024, we spoke with the film’s director about what he intended with the film and how he sees it. Clearly marked spoilers follow a few more general questions.

Germain Lussier, io9: I like the movie a lot and one of the things I like most about it is that its world-building is never over-explained. How did you find that balance of giving the audience just enough to kind of suck them in—but not giving them too much?

Alexandre Aja: You just put your finger exactly on the center, and the most challenging part, of making this movie. I wanted to not give all the keys. The same way fairy tales are sometimes very obscure in the explanation of their rules, I wanted to give this feeling to the audience, to keep everything out there. All the elements are here. I mean, all the clues are in the movie. But you need to connect them. There is a proactive request from the audience to be able to build up the story. And we had much more, of course, during production. It was really during the ultimate writing, which is the editing, that we decided [on the balance]. First, we tried a cut with no explanation whatsoever and then we gave way too much. And then it was to find that right balance to build that experience where your mind goes, “Oh, oh, I was not expecting this.” Because when you come to see this type of movie, you bring everything that you’ve seen before. So you have expectations. So your mind goes, “Oh, I know where it’s going.” But it’s my path to play with that and just keep moving and moving so subvert the expectation.

io9: This is probably a stupid question but how long were the ropes? Do you have an idea of how long the ropes were? And was there ever a thought about them being more careful about exactly where they walked? Because a lot of times I was thinking “Just go around the tree another way!”

Aja: The rope walk was a very tricky thing but it’s a hundred yards of rope. And if you tie all of them together, you have like 300 yards. That’s the limit to get to the road. But they had to learn how to walk in the forest and to carry that rope. Because when you leave and the rope unfolds, that’s great. It’s easy. But when you come back, you need to roll it up. And a hundred yards of rope is very, very heavy. So it was like tricky and we didn’t cheat. Everything is real.

io9: Oh wow. Another thing I like about the movie is how you can interpret it in so many ways. As I was watching it, at first I was like, “Oh, maybe this is about covid and we’re scared of what’s outside.” Later I was like, “This is like politics or religion where our family isolates us and feeds us their beliefs.” How much did you talk about how open-ended the initial intention was?

Aja: When I read it, it was a very clear interpretation for me. But then I realized that a lot of people around—producers, other partners— had a different read with a different interpretation. And instead of just making it clear that my vision was going to be the one that prevailed, I tried to keep everything kind of possible. There are movies like Onibaba, it’s a classic Japanese movie, amazing, that also has this kind of multiple readings. Some of the classics like Edgar Allan Poe, some of his stories can have a supernatural explanation and a realistic explanation and both can live together. I really wanted to keep that open.

io9: Which is so different from most of your other movies. Usually there are a lot more crocodiles in the water. It’s usually very visceral. Did you have to hold back into your filmmaking instincts with this?

Aja: Of course, every story dictates the way we’re going to approach it. I know that the opportunity of building a world like in Crawl or The Hills Have Eyes or High Tension, it’s definitely exciting for me, but then the way you’re going to film it, the way you’re going to tell the story through your camera is different from any story. I knew that for this specific one, I couldn’t use the same technique that I used on Crawl. It’s not the same topic. It’s much more psychologically layered. So I wanted to give this kind of open canvas so people can see and project different things.

io9: Watching the movie, I could almost rationalize or figure out everything that happens except for one thing, and it’s the thing that comes back at the very end. It’s the line “She loves me more.” Talk about deploying that so early in the movie, knowing that that was the one puzzle piece that didn’t fit, and bringing it back.

Aja: I mean, that question is one of my favorite ones because, in fact, when that first line is said, you don’t know if he said it. And even if you look at how Samuel defended himself and said, “No, I didn’t say that,” it doesn’t feel like a genuine, in way. Did he say it? Did the Evil say it? [That] is what’s running through Nolan’s mind. Is there jealousy between the two brothers? But at the end, when it comes, it’s clear that he’s saying it. So it’s clear that Samuel went full tilt on the other side. And now, no matter what, he will still be on the rope for the rest of his life. He will still be infected by his family trauma or the darkness that his mom had inside her as well.

io9: Halle said in the Q&A at Fantastic Fest that you can interpret what the Evil is in a bunch of different ways. Did not having a specific answer to that impact the movie at all? And do you have in your mind a specific answer?

Aja: My answer is it’s as real as much as you want to believe in. It’s the belief that makes it real. Is it real in an objective way? And this is a big spoiler but personally, I don’t think so. Because in that case, why would a rope protect you from it? It’s really about faith. It’s really about what you believe. Personally, I think it’s really like the darkness that’s inside them. And the whole movie is about how this young man, Nolan, is going to start questioning [everything]. He’s going to start doing the work. And by the end of the movie, he’s going to embrace the darkness of his mom, accept it, to be able to cut the rope and get free. While his brother will not be able to do that.

io9: We do see a hand in the photo though. So I read the ending a different way.

Aja: It’s a movie. It’s a fairy tale. Like at the end of The Shining, is that picture of the Overlook Hotel with Jack Torrance among the guests, is it real? Or is it a way for Kubrick to say it was in hell from the beginning? I think that’s [up for] interpretation. Of course, it also works if you say, “Okay, it’s real.” It’s about what you believe.

Never Let Go is now in theaters.

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