Filmmaker Alexandre Aja remains best known for graphic horror flicks such as 2010’s Piranha and 2019’s Crawl. 2024’s Never Let Go goes down more of a psychological thriller path, however.

“Momma” (Halle Berry) lives with her sons Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) in a remote cabin location. Momma claims that an evil force covered the planet and left them as the only survivors.

Momma requires that they literally stay connected at all times. However, Nolan eventually begins to question the reality of this situation, a factor that causes waves in the family.

Of the three Aja films I saw prior to Never, I thought the earliest worked best. Aja updated 1977’s erratic The Hills Have Eyes with a more effective 2006 take.

2010’s Piranha offered another remake, as it reworked 1978’s bad Joe Dante original into a limp version of its own. Crawl fared better but failed to turn into a particularly compelling “creature attack” feature.

Given that all of those offered violent terror and Never opted for a more subdued path, I felt curious to see if Aja could do much with this theme. Unfortunately, he delivers a tale heavy on attempts at creepy ambience but light on actual scares.

I do appreciate the general absence of heavy-handed horror here. Though the movie occasionally delves into more overt action/scares, it generally stays with a more subtle sense of terror.

This just doesn’t generate much viewer anxiety. While Never opts for some restrained elements, it can tip its hand too much at times, especially related to music.

Robin Coudert’s score leans insistent and rarely allows the viewer room to interpret events in any way other than as Spooky Spooky. Too much of the time, these elements telegraph concepts and emotions far too much.

It doesn’t help that Never simply lacks the story content to fill 102 minutes. Though it comes from an original script, if I didn’t know that, I would believe it adapted a short story.

Never certainly plays that way. It struggles so much to give us a feature-length tale that it feels like a brief source text stretched with padding.

I guess that’s why we get all that Spooky Spooky score. With so few moments of real drama, the music attempts to convince us we find something more dynamic than we do.

Of course, the big question here revolves around the potential reality of the situation. Did the world really implode as Momma claims or does she suffer from mental illness that trickles down to her kids?

No spoilers, but I must admit that I found myself pretty disinterested in the answer. A better movie would make me curious to see where the plot progresses but Never becomes so blah that I failed to invest in the roles or outcomes.

Berry does fine as our lead, and the kids more than hold up their ends of the bargain. The rest the film lets them down, though, as it delivers a slow-paced and less then enthralling experience.

Never Let Go appears in an aspect ratio of 2.11:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. If I ever reviewed a movie framed at 2.11:1 in the past, I don’t recall it, as that seems like a quirky aspect ratio.

And perhaps incorrect, as I just went by the listing on the back of the disc’s case. I didn’t break out the tape measure to check it.

Whatever the exact dimensions may be, this turned into satisfying Dolby Vision image, albeit not one without some concerns. In particular, scenes inside the cabin looked awfully dim.

Though I strongly suspect this came about as a photographic choice, it made the movie awfully murky at times. Indeed, I occasionally wondered if my player’s HDR sputtered because low-light shots turned so tough to discern.

Brightness worked fine when allowed to prosper, though, and HDR gave whites and contrast good punch in those instances. Blacks leaned firm as well.

Sharpness always worked well. Nary a lick of softness interfered with this accurate presentation.

No issues with jaggies or shimmering materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws never arrived.

The movie’s palette leaned toward a subdued sense of teal and amber. The hues looked fine, with added range from HDR. Outside of the murky low light shots, this wound up as a very appealing image.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos audio suited the story. This meant a soundscape heavy on creepy atmosphere and music, factors that used the channels in an involving manner.

Occasional scare/action sequences broadened the soundfield in a positive way. Although the mix didn’t form a fully engrossing sonic picture, it did what it needed to do.

Audio quality held up well, with speech that seemed nature and concise. Music felt full and rich.

Effects came across as accurate and dynamic, with solid low-end. The soundtrack suited the story.

Three featurettes appear and Making Never Let Go runs 11 minutes, 43 seconds. It offers notes from director Alexandre Aja, producer/actor Halle Berry, producer Dan Cohen, executive producer Holly Jeter, director of photography Maxim Alexandre, makeup artist Norma Patton-Lowin, stunt coordinator Maja Aro, and actors Anthony B. Jenkins and Percy Daggs IV.

The reel looks at the project’s development, story/characters, cast and performances, locations and photography, costumes and makeup, various effects, stunts, and the movie’s themes. “Making” romps through a lot of topics in a brief period and gives us some good info, even if less than 12 minutes seems insufficient to really explore the topics.

Creating Momma’s House goes for six minutes, 37 seconds. Here we find info from Aja, Berry, Daggs, Jeter, Cohen, and production designer Jeremy Stanbridge.

As implied by the title, “Creating” covers the movie’s primary set. It creates a fairly worthwhile little take on this area.

Finally, Tethered Together occupies seven minutes, four seconds. It features Berry, Aja, Cohen, Jeter, Alexandre, Jenkins and Daggs.

“Together” examines Aja’s take on the tale, the film’s location and set, casting, and other production elements. The featurette feels like a shorter mix of the other two programs and seems redundant most of the time.

Along with the movie’s trailer, we locate six deleted scenes that fill a total of seven minutes, seven seconds. These mostly offer some added glimpses of the main characters’ day to day existence.

We do find some more scare-based moments, though these can feel redundant given what the movie already contains. Because the film already runs too long, I don’t think any of these needed to make the final cut.

As a psychological thriller, Never Let Go can’t connect. It offers too thin a story to fill its 102 minutes and fails to create an engaging tale. The 4K UHD comes with largely solid picture and audio along with a moderate mix of supplements. Despite some potential positives, the end product feels too sluggish and uninspired to click.