Don’t Let Go is a psychological horror-thriller directed and written by Jacob Aaron Estes, from a story by Estes and Drew Daywalt. Jason Blum serves as a producer through his Blumhouse Productions banner, alongside Bobby Cohen and David Oyelowo.
I took a chance and went to see Don’t Let Go, despite the fact I never heard of it. This one flew way under the radar, as I really enjoyed it.
Don’t Let Go starts off with Jack Radcliff (David Oyelowo) who is a homicide detective, picking up his niece Ashley Radcliff (Storm Reid) from a theater, after her parents had forgotten. Ashley is somewhat detached from her parents, especially her father Garret Radcliff (Brian Tyree Henry) due to his bipolar disorder and past years of drug abuse. Jack decides to have a stern talk with Garret about his lack of decent parenting skills. The movie goes on to show the close relationship Jack and Ashley have developed over the years.
While bogged down in paperwork, Jack receives a disturbing phone call from Ashley desperately begging for help. Jack races to their house only to find Ashley, Garret and his sister-in-law dead. He also finds a box of cocaine beside Garret, which suggests Garret killed his wife, daughter and himself after consuming too much drugs, which caused him to lose control and go into a murderous rage. Jack blamed himself, thinking that his chastising of Garret sparked this murder-suicide.
Two weeks later, Jack receives a phone call from Ashley which indicates she is still alive. Mysteriously, Ashley is calling him from the past. Jack then realizes by changing events in Ashley’s timeline will cause changes in his own time, enabling him to re-write the past. He decides to covertly help her re-arrange events in her life in the hope of preventing the murder-suicide. It quickly becomes apparent that Garret was not responsible for murdering himself and his family but was murdered by someone else. Jack and his partner Bobby (Mykelti Williamson), who is also a homicide detective and close family friend, begins to uncover evidence of an underground network of drug dealing cops working for an unknown figure called “Georgie”. Garret’s old connections to the drug underworld finally caught up with him, allegedly leading Georgie to collect some old debts and kill Garret and his family, or so it seems.
Although, Don’t Let Go, in my opinion, is a science fiction/fantasy movie, it was directed in such a way that you really start to believe this could happen. Kudos to Jacob Aaron Estes for his creativity and direction. There is a lot of story here that will require your deepest focus to keep up. Things are going to happen quickly so keep alert. “Georgie” must be cracked, the timeline must line up and Jack must convince someone that there is really a chance to turn this murder mystery around. I highly recommend Don’t Let Go — Check It Out!
10 Cloverfield Lane is a good one. Advertised as a thriller/horror movie, it’s a lot of one and some of the other. It keeps you guessing all the way through. I was entertaining at lease three endings before we even reached the middle of the movie. A young lady Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) apparently leaves her fiancé, Ben. On the way to where ever she was going, she drives through Louisiana late at night and has an accident with something (lets assume it’s another car). The next scene, she’s bolted to a wall, unconscious in a bed, locked in a concrete room with bruises on her leg and face. Soon a man named Howard (John Goodman) appears who eventually tells her a story about why she is there, in his bunker and how grateful she should be. The air outside is contaminated, according to Howard, and there may be aliens who have taken over the world or not. Perhaps the explosion she allegedly saw, only took out the United States of America or just the state of Louisiana. At any rate, there’s no escape for at lease two years. Many things happen that support Howard’s theory eventually making a semi-quasi believer out of Michelle. They become friends for a time but Howard shows a violent side which makes it difficult to trust him. As time goes by, Michelle learns more about Howard and their situation and grows more suspicious. There is also one other young man named Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) living in the underground bunker with them. He seems normal and very nice and they get along well. Howard however, seems to be agitated with Emmett most of the time. Forming her own conclusions, Michelle plots an escape, but Howard is too smart and too suspicious. As the film forges on, we begin to draw our own conclusions but things are not what they seem. We are mostly incorrect right up to the very end. This movie is different, entertaining, well thought out and very well acted. Dan Trachtenberg, in his directorial debut, left no stone unturned as closure was brought to all. I wouldn’t be surprised if a sequel is in the works. Nicely done!
CAROL's WORLDS 