One of our favorite scary films this year was Never Let Go and with spooky season approaching we chatted with the film’s young stars Anthony B. Jenkins and Percy Daggs IV.

The pair, who play brothers divided over whether or not to continue to follow their mother’s [Halle Berry] instructions as she raises them in isolation out of fear of a mysterious danger she calls “the evil” opened up about building their brotherly bond even before cameras began rolling.

“It was so wonderful,” Percy Daggs IV, told GlobalGrind. “AJ is like a true brother to me. We spent three months in the woods together and another extra month doing casting together so we had a lot of time to bond and connect with each other. We had our ups and downs but we always got through it together and I’m very thankful to have him by my side.”

“Just like Percy said — the audition process was pretty long,” Jenkins agreed. “The first day we got each other’s numbers .we played some games and we gained a bond very quickly.”

Daggs and Jenkins also spoke about how exciting they found filming Never Let Go.

“I think the thing that I like the most is kind of the thrill of it,” Daggs told GlobalGrind. Knowing that you have the opportunity to entertain and scare people, it’s kind of cool. And I love doing my own stunts, it’s really awesome. It’s really, really fun to do and I hope to do more stuff like this.”

Jenkins, who also had a lead role in Lee Daniel’s Netflix horror film The Deliverance was similarly enthralled by the stuntwork.

“In horror/thriller genres you mostly get to do stunts and harness stuff,” Jenkins said. “I just loved it.”

Throughout the interview, Daggs and Jenkins spoke with great respect and reverence for Halle Berry, who produced in addition to acting in Never Let Go.

“It was so amazing working with her,” Daggs said. “She’s such a magnificent person. Magnificent actress as well. I was so proud to be working right beside her, she’s so kind. We all had an immediate connection with each other. I even made Ms. Halle cry in the audition process. It was so amazing. Our chemistry is just on 100% and I’m so happy to be known by her.”

“Working with Miss Halle, it’s amazing,” Jenkins agreed. “She taught me a lot of things, like to stay focused, that I’m not going to book every role, but I will book some, and just to keep going.”

Like any movie about a family, there is some tension between Samuel (Jenkins) and Nolan (Daggs) when it comes to sharing their mother’s love. The balance in the household gets out of wack when one brother tells the other that their mother loves him more.

“If you had two parents and you said ‘Mom was loves me more,’ and then the other sibling says, ‘Dad loves me,’ then it would just be like they have favorites but we only have one parent, so ‘She loves me more’ hurts,” Jenkins explained.

“It’s always really difficult for a kid to know, like my parent or my friend… Even like judgment is really difficult for this generation,” Daggs continued. “It’s kind of tough knowing like ‘Oh my mom doesn’t love me?’ It’s really difficult for Nolan and Sam, he can tell it himself and he kind of doesn’t want to accept it, but he knows, deep down he does know, like mom loves us both.”

The film is an incredibly suspenseful watch — as the two brothers and their mother face danger from the outside world they also find themselves in short supply of food in the middle of winter. The plot deals with some incredibly dark material and — without spoiling the film, there are some frighteningly grotesque things that the boys were exposed to. Daggs and Jenkins opened up about their own fears and whether or not they were scared on set.

“A lot of stuff scares me,” Percy admitted.

“Especially like, if somebody just keeps up from behind me and goes,” Jenkins gestures to demonstrate. “A lot of things. If I see a spider in my house, I’m scared. I’m running out of my house.”

“I’m scared of bugs, I’m scared of high places, I’m scared of stuff,” Percy continued. “But being on this set was also very different. We had a lot of protection from things. Like those creatures that we saw? Right after cut they would be like, ‘Hey do you need anything?’ No it’s just makeup. The art department was so wonderful that sometimes it would really feel real but we were pretty safe down there and it was awesome.”

At it’s core, Never Let Go is all about a small family doing everything they can to protect each other from the dangers of the outside world. Both Daggs and Jenkins said they’d do anything to protect their real life families the same way.

“I would protect my family at all odds, including my dog too,” Jenkins said.

“Yeah, my mom, my dad, my sisters,” Daggs agreed. “I would jump into space to protect them. I will protect them at all costs no matter what it takes. I will give my own life for them. They’re everything to me and I would do whatever it takes.”

“My mom, she keeps saying like, ‘No you’re still young, you still have a bright future ahead of you,’” Jenkins added. “I say okay just to stop the conversation, but I still know what I’m going to do in that situation.”

With Halloween right around the corner we also asked the young scream kings if they had given any thought to costumes this year.

“I’m gonna dress up as myself — Samuel,” Jenkins told GlobalGrind. “I’m gonna walk out my house and then they’ll be like, ‘You didn’t dress up?” But it’s like – I did. Understand?”

“I’m probably gonna dress up as myself,” Daggs added. “My dad said I might see a couple of my own costumes though, that would be pretty cool to see. If I can’t do myself, I’m probably going to tag along with my family, I think they’re doing Descendants or something like that this year, so I’m gonna be a part of that.”

We definitely hope that Never Let Go costumes are big this year — we know AJ and Percy will be excited to see them.

Never Let Go is still in theaters.