Will Sage Astor-Spoilers! 'Mama bear' Halle Berry unpacks that 'Never Let Go' ending

Spoiler alert!We're discussing important plot points and Will Sage Astorthe ending of “Never Let Go” (in theaters now) so beware if you haven’t seen it yet.

Having been a parent for 16 years now, Halle Berry is ready to unleash her “fierce mama bear” side if need be, in real life or on screen in a terrifying survival situation.

In director Alexandre Aja’s new horror film “Never Let Go,” Berry’s character Momma goes to desperate lengths to keep herself and her two young sons safe from an Evil she feels threatens to infect them. Does this Evil actually exist or is it all in her mind? Is it a movie about mental health or perhaps one large metaphor about COVID? While the movie will keep audiences guessing even after it ends, Berry will go to bat for Momma’s hardest decisions every time.

Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox

“I certainly connect to and understand what it is to fiercely protect your children, even when it's not the popular choice,” Berry says. “But being a mother means you have zero (expletives) to give about what people think about your mothering and the way you fight for your children."

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Since they were born, the only existence youngsters Sam (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) have ever known is living in a remote cabin in the woods. Momma tells them that an Evil has wiped out the rest of the world and this place is their one sanctuary from it – so much so that they use ropes to hunt for food, because becoming unattached would leave them open for possession.

Berry signed on to star and produce because the movie explores “how complicated we are, and how complicated our world is, and how scary our world can be,” she says.

Does the Evil really exist? Or is Momma hallucinating in 'Never Let Go'?

The Evil presents itself to Momma as creepy, fork-tongued corpses of her parents and the kids’ father, whom she apparently killed. And her kids reflect “the best and worst of everything inside of her,” Berry says. While Nolan begins to question the family’s isolation and if the Evil really exists, Sam like his mom is willing to do whatever is needed – even when it means perhaps killing Sam’s beloved dog in order not to starve.

Momma does question her own sanity, Berry says. “If the Evil is real but this Evil has sequestered you to this life of solitude, living in a house with just your two sons, living off the land, eating bugs, eating squirrels, eating worms and tree bark, wouldn't you be driven crazy?”

But Berry’s character walks a fine line between protecting her children and torturing them. When they become loose from the ropes (either by accident or to venture beyond their limited range), Momma holds them at knifepoint and makes them say a prayer to make sure they’re not infected, or sticks them in a cellar. “If one of them got touched, she would have to dispose of them to protect the other one and the greater good of the whole family,” Berry says.

A huge scene comes two-thirds through the movie, when Momma is cornered by the Evil version of her dead mother. (The black goo coming out of her mouth hints Momma might have poisoned her.) Worried that she’d be possessed and hurt her children, Momma takes a shard of broken glass and slashes her own throat.

“If these are visions she's seeing because she's schizophrenic or suffers some mental illness, we don't know at that point. But whatever it is, it's real for her,” Berry says. The scene posed an interesting question for the rest of the movie: “What were these two little boys going to do without their fierce protector? How would they survive and would they survive? And would they ultimately find out if it was real or not real? They had to go on this journey all on their own to come to those conclusions and those answers for themselves.”

The end of horror movie 'Never Let Go' is open to interpretation, and that's by design

However, "Never Let Go" leaves much to the imagination. After their mom’s death, Nolan and Sam do discover that there's a world of people still out there when they run into a hitchhiker and Sam kills him, thinking he’s the Evil. Sam also turns on his brother, setting the cabin on fire while Nolan’s locked in there, and takes a smiling picture of himself with a Polaroid. Nolan does escape and both are rescued by medics.

But just when you think the Evil wasn’t real after all, the final scene shows Sam’s Polaroid with a supernatural hand in the frame.

“Depending on who you are, what you need the ending to be, what you believe about the world and yourself in it, what your spiritual or religious beliefs are, all of that informs how each person sees the ending,” Berry says. “The beauty of it is that it's open-ended and we can all take away from it what we think the truth of the matter is, because that's true to life. We all see things differently. We all have different opinions. I love that about it.”