NEVER LET GO
*CUT TO THE CHASE*NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
The film opens somewhere in the Canadian woods. An unnamed woman (Halle Berry) lives with her twin sons, Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV), and their dog Koda in a cabin isolated from the rest of the world. The Mother (“Momma”) has told the boys that the world has ended due to an “evil” that has plagued the world, and they must remain connected to the house by their ropes. If they go any further, The Evil will get them, as it supposedly did to the boys’ father and grandparents.
The Evil appears to Momma as her own mother (Kathryn Kirkpatrick) with a serpent-like tongue, while the boys have never seen it. The three go out foraging for food, mostly getting squirrels and critters with pieces of tree bark. Nolan tries to get an egg that is beyond the rope’s reach, so he has Sam help him. Nolan believes he overhears Sam saying that their mother loves him more, so Nolan steps on Sam’s rope and causes him to fall from the rope and break his foot. Nolan blows a whistle for Momma to come running and shield them. The Evil comes out as Grandmother but leaves the family alone.
I. The Rope Is Your Lifeline
Momma tends to Sam’s foot wound and chastises Nolan for what he did. She makes the boys touch the wooden floor and recite a mantra to keep The Evil away. Nolan tells Sam what he thought he heard him say, though Sam denies saying it.
Over dinner, Momma explains to her sons how The Evil tries to trick people. Long ago, she saw what appeared to be a little girl who got her foot stuck in a gopher hole screaming for help. Momma ignored her, and the girl seemed to just die and rot away, but she never went to check for fear that The Evil wanted her to do exactly that.
At night, The Evil appears to Momma as the boys’ father, Poppa (Will Catlett), who refers to Momma as June, or “Junebug”. He suggests that Momma tell the boys the truth over how The Evil came to be, or else it will make her eat the boys.
Momma tries to bond with her boys by playing music on an old record player. They all gather around the fire and dance together.
II. How Will I Feed My Children?
The family goes looking for food, but Nolan soon finds himself alone and scared. He finds himself free from the rope and taken by The Evil. This ends up being a nightmare, and he is standing outside without the rope. Momma brings him back inside and locks him in the cellar under the floorboards to “cleanse” himself of the darkness.
Momma goes hunting for food. The Evil appears to her as a vision of Nolan getting his face pecked out by a crow.
With the winter season arriving, Momma notes that the food supply is dangerously low. She suggests to her sons that they eat Koda. While Sam is willing to follow his mother, Nolan refuses and tells them he hates them for even considering it.
Momma takes Koda outside and prepares to kill the dog with a crossbow, but she cannot bring himself to do it. Nolan cuts Momma’s rope and locks her in the shed to prove that there is no evil since he was unaffected. The Evil comes for Momma, as she pleads with Nolan to let her out and that she was not fully honest about how she brought The Evil there. She sees her mother taunting her over how she had to kill her husband and parents to stop The Evil, but now it has come for her. Momma slits her throat to stop it from affecting her. Sam runs into the shed and weeps over his mother’s body.
III. What Will Become of Us?
With Momma gone, the boys start running out of food. Sam starts to get very weak and sick. Nolan ties his and Sam’s ropes together to go out into the forest until he hits a road and starts calling for help. When he gets back to the cabin, a hitchhiker who says his name is Cole (Matthew Kevin Anderson) comes responding to the call for help. He offers Nolan food until Sam comes out with the crossbow. Cole tries to leave but Sam shoots an arrow through him. Nolan runs after Cole, who bleeds out near a tree while dialing for help. Nolan takes the bag back and gives Sam the food inside. Even though he is angry with Nolan for disobeying the rules, he eats and regains his strength.
Sam goes outside and thinks he sees Momma in the shed, but only her rotting corpse remains. A young girl (Cadence Compton) appears from behind Sam. She claims to be Cole’s daughter and that she was waiting for him to come back. Sam tries to say he didn’t see him, but the girl recognizes the flashlight he is holding as belonging to her father. Sam tries to explain himself, but the girl runs into the woods. Sam chases her and gets his rope tangled in the trees. The girl then turns out to be part of The Evil, as it turns into a spider creature that infects Sam.
Nolan finds Sam and tries to bring him back inside the house. Sam, now corrupted by The Evil, antagonizes Nolan and locks him in the room upstairs and then sets the place on fire, watching it burn from outside. Nolan escapes the room and is confronted by The Evil taking Momma’s form. It attempts to taunt him and infect him too, but Nolan escapes into the cellar, pulling The Evil inside. Nolan grabs onto The Evil and projects his love for his mother toward it. The Evil’s true form is revealed as a scaly lizard monster that embraces Nolan before disappearing for good.
Firefighters come upon the remains of the house and find Nolan alive under the cellar. Sam is also recovered, while Koda runs after the chopper taking them away. Nearby is a Polaroid photo taken by Sam, showing The Evil’s hand on his shoulder. Nolan tells Sam that they are finally free, while Sam quietly mutters “She loves me more”.
In the Canadian woods, a woman (only credited as “Momma” but her name is implied to be June) lives with her twin sons, Samuel and Nolan, isolated from the world after a supposed apocalyptic event where an entity called “The Evil” takes over with anyone it touches. Sam is loyal to his mother, but Nolan questions the truth behind everything.
Momma kills herself when Nolan unwittingly traps her inside a shed with The Evil, which manifests as her own mother. Sam grows weak from a lack of food, and a hitchhiker appears offering help. Believing it to be a trick of The Evil, Sam shoots the man with an arrow, and Nolan takes his food supply. A girl claiming to be the man’s daughter appears later, but it turns out to be The Evil luring Sam into The Woods, where it infects him.
Sam attempts to kill Nolan by locking him in the house and burning it down. Nolan escapes and confronts The Evil, who manifests before him as Momma. He projects his love for her onto The Evil, causing it to disintegrate.
Firefighters rescue Sam and Nolan, though it is unclear if The Evil’s presence is truly gone from Sam.