Never Let Go Interview: Director Alexandre Aja on Keeping Viewers Guessing

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Never Let Go director Alexandre Aja about the Halle Berry-led horror movie. Aja discussed keeping the audience guessing, its interpretations, and more. Lionsgate will release the thriller exclusively in theaters on September 27, 2024.

“From visionary director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Crawl) and the creative minds behind Stranger Things and Arrival comes Never Let Go. In this new psychological thriller/horror, as an Evil takes over the world beyond their front doorstep, the only protection for a mother, played by Academy Award winner Halle Berry (Actress in a Leading Role, 2001 –Monster’s Ball), and her twin sons is their house and their family’s protective bond. Needing to stay connected at all times – even tethering themselves with ropes – they cling to one another, urging each other to never let go. But when one of the boys questions if the evil is real, the ties that bind them together are severed, triggering a terrifying fight for survival,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: You really make the viewers second guess themselves about the mental state of Halle Berry’s character. Is this real? Is it imagined? I kept going back and forth multiple times. How was it playing into viewer expectations and really taking them on the ride? You do a great job with that.

Alexandre Aja: This is exactly what was the most challenging and interesting part of the process of making this movie. When I read the script the first time, my interpretation was very clear. It was kind of obvious. But then, talking to producers and other partners on the movie, I realized that everyone had a different read and a different interpretation, and I was, “Oh, so I need to make it clear.”

But then I was like, oh, maybe it’s interesting to keep all this interpretation alive to make a movie that doesn’t really necessarily give you like, “Oh, that was all supernatural,” “Oh, that was just all like mental illness,” or “Oh, that was just…” but keep a conversation and manage to play also with the audience’s mind as you go into the movie. To play with the mystery to have them go, “Oh, okay, I know what’s going. Oh, no, it’s taking another direction. Oh, it’s…” To keep those twists and turns very exciting, to generate a suspenseful feeling because it’s not the usual gory, very graphic movie. I’ve made those as well, but this one was more playing a different type of fear. A fear that’s more like crawling under your skin.

I love that you talked about interpretation because one thing I liked was that the film really did was it didn’t overexplain. You don’t know every single small thing about how this world operates. Is it our world? Is it a different world? It’s all up to interpretation. Could you speak to that? Because I feel like a lot of people say they want to know everything about a world, but I don’t think they actually mean that. I think it’s far more fun to have that mystery there.

Personally, I’m a moviegoer before being a filmmaker. I remember every year when I watched The Shining, because this is one of my favorite movies, and I watch it again and again and again. I see different things. I interpret it in a different way. I feel that this is one of the only movies that doesn’t try to give you all the explanation, that doesn’t try to give you all the elements. David Lynch did really well as well in many movies, but there is also this Japanese classic or movie from the sixties called Onibaba, that is one of my favorite movies of all time, that also has multiple interpretations.

Is it supernatural? Is she crazy? There is a lot of things that’s happening in this movie that I thought was kind of related to Never Let Go. So I just wanted to be sure we were not going to give all the explanation and that was not the only one. Halle, when we met the first time, she told me, “I want to be sure that we’re not going to compromise on the complexity of my character, but also that we’re not going to try to explain everything.” It was music to my ears. It was exactly what I wanted to do. If you look at the movie, all the elements are here. All the clues are in the movie. You have all the information you need, but you just need a little bit more work. Just need to be a little bit more proactive, connect all the dots together, to figure out the right interpretation — if there is one. Because, of course, maybe there are two. I’m not going to give you mine, but for me, it’s quite clear.

Thanks to Alexandre Aja for taking the time to talk about Never Let Go.