Celebrities

Halle Berry on her return to the horror genre and caring for her onscreen sons in thriller ‘Never Let Go’

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on September 20, 2024

Halle Berry hasn’t been seen in a horror film since 2003’s Gothika, but that changes on Friday with the release of the thriller Never Let Go.

In the film, she plays the mother of two young boys who’s trying to keep them safe in their remote home after an unseen evil takes over the world. The trio is all alone against this threat, bonded by blood and a rope they keep tethered to their home, and themselves, when they venture outdoors.

While Halle hasn’t scared moviegoers in a while, she tells ABC Audio, “I love this genre … And I liked this script because it represented something that I had never seen.”

The Oscar winner continues, “While it’s… got some similarities to other movies, I had never seen a family like this, a mother and two sons in the middle of nowhere having to, you know, figure their way through this predicament that they’re in.”

Regarding that “middle of nowhere,” they shot in “an old, abandoned house” in very rural Oregon, not a soundstage.

Halle says it was everything for her and her young co-stars, Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins. “I loved it because … it kept us all in the reality of this world,” the actress said, adding “being out in the elements” meant the occasional danger of bear encounters, helping show them how quickly that “beautiful place would turn into a horrific place.”

Halle says she made sure the movie’s heavy subject matter didn’t take a toll on the young performers. “Being a mother, that’s one of the things I worried about. And I … wanted to send them back home the way they came,” she adds with a laugh. “And I think they did. So I think that’s a huge accomplishment.”