To be honest, I didn’t have much faith going in that this would be a good movie. However, I’m a bit surprised at how much fun it turned out to be. I haven’t seen Halle Berry in ages and truth be told, I haven’t exactly followed her career. Most I’ve ever heard of her mentioned are usually in rap songs. When I saw the movie poster and read the synopsis, I thought to give it a shot. Let us see what Halle Berry got cooked up!

Right off the bat, the movie just went into it. I love that. No overhead forest shot of a family driving through, unpacking their things to settle into their new haunted house, having to listen to cringe jokes by teenagers, and most importantly of all, having to wait around the 40-50 minute mark or longer for things to finally pick up. With Let Me Go, we immediately see that Mama and her two kids are in some type of post apocalyptic world where the Evil is everywhere outside their cabin home in a secluded forest. The only way to be safe from the Evil when traversing outside to gather food is to be tethered to a rope attached to the house. It also doesn’t take long for viewers to question the sanity of Mama. Why is it that only she can see the Evil and not her two sons? Hmm…this seems like the classic case of mental illness portrayal in movies. Add to the fact that the Evil has taken victims of her mom and previous other family members, it’s another sign of mental illness being inherited down the line.

What gets the movie really going is towards the later half when shit gets real. The viewers are continually evaluating and looking for validations whether the Evil is real or not. It isn’t until the boys meet the hiker that things just got more suspenseful, right up to the very ending. Just when you thought you had it figured out, it does a 180 turn, and you’re left once again trying to decipher what is real or not. I loved it. One of the best horror scenes I’ve seen in quite a while involved the scene where Nolan ran to pursue the hiker’s daughter in the woods and night and had to untether himself from the rope. That part where it showed the multiple hands climbing up the tree is something that will give me the creeps for at least a week. Very well done! The movie admission price was well worth it just for that scene itself. 😂

My interpretation after having watched the movie is that so much of it is related to biblical references. The prayers, the snake references, locking up the kids in the attic, the typical good vs evil mantra, the Cain and Abel like similarities between Nolan and Samuel along with the manifestation of the creature itself towards the end. I took the creature as just to be the Devil himself? As far as whether the Evil is real or not, the directors took the “open to interpretation” route. On the one hand, we get it. Actual evil is everywhere we look, depending on our interpretation of things. Samuel was the type of child that believed in supporting his Mama regardless of the evidence provided, whereas Nolan was more of the thoughtful and curious type once things started to get bad. There can be evil in either type. It was also obvious to many that Mama did suffer from some type of mental illness, as it was revealed in the end. But did she really as evident in the selfie photo Samuel took? Either way, both boys will be messed up going forward. Halle Berry was great playing the unhinged and psychotic mother, while Anthony Jenkins is proving that he can be creepy as fuck when he needs to be! Here’s to hoping he will have a long and prosperous career ahead.