One Scene in Halle Berry’s ‘Never Let Go’ is So Disturbing Even the Dog Seemingly Felt the Tension

SUMMARY

• Never Let Go was a film that delivered one of the most tense horror scenes of 2024.
• The scene in question saw Halle Berry's character contemplating to kill her dog to feed her starving children.
• The scene had everybody involved behind the scenes tense and scared, despite being part of the production.

Never Let Go has to be one of the most disturbing films to have come out of the horror scene in 2024. With breathtaking performances by all its actors, especially Halle Berry, the film has managed to successfully create one of the most tense atmospheres among audiences, with one particular scene leaving even the filmmakers horribly tensed.

A still from Never Let Go || Lionsgate

The scene in question involved the dog Coda, who was a part of the family the film follows. However, when the starving family had to contemplate whether they should eat the dog to allow them to survive another day, the scene was as tense for the crew and cast as it was for the audience watching the final product.

Everyone on set was a dog lover, revealed the director of Never Let Go

Never Let Go || Credit: Lionsgate

Alexandre Aja, director of the film, talked to Cinemablend about the scene in particular, regaling how intense the situation got behind the scenes, despite everybody being aware that it was just a scene in the film. He said:

We knew it was the most intense moment, and we are all like dog lovers. I had my dog on set all the time with me. Even knowing exactly the outcome of that scene and what is happening, it was a moment that we knew was going to break the audience and us, and we were on set and we were… it was so hard and believable.

The scene functioned as one of the most disturbing scenes in the film, given that Coda had been a constant companion for the family for quite some time. The dog performer, named Brass, also allegedly felt the tension, as stated by the director in the same interview. He elaborated:

Like you could see every reaction as he was looking at her. He was believing like, ‘What’s going to happen?’ It was quite something.

The film’s cast received a lot of praise for the performances, which sold the plight of the family in question, putting on screen a tormented set of characters that were struggling to hold it together.

Never Let Go tells the story of a family’s struggle against an entity that just won’t let go

Never Let Go || Credit: Lionsgate

Never Let Go is unique as a horror film, given that it follows a family that is haunted by an evil entity. However, things start going sideways when one of the children in the family begins doubting if the evil being is even present at all. A very nuanced take on the fears that once faced when parenting young children, this story is very well rooted in the themes that it wishes to explore.

Horror films, in general, have a knack for picking up social issues that make societies anxious and present these issues in a palatable manner. As ‘the right way’ of parenting becomes a contested topic of debate in more than a few parts of the world, stories like Never Let Go might just gain the momentum that it needs. Regardless, the film is ripe for developing a cult following around itself, given its cast and how it deals with its subject matter.

Written by Anuraag Chatterjee

Articles Published: 939

Anuraag Chatterjee, Web Content Writer
With a passion for writing fiction and non fiction content, Anuraag is a Media Science graduate with 2 year's experience with Marketing and Content, with 3 published poetry anthologies. Anuraag holds a Bacherlor's degree in Arts with a focus on Communication and Media Studies.