In “Together”, Allison Brie and Dave Franco Discover Love Can Be Disgustingly Sticky | Coming Soon

Horror films have a unique way of bringing people closer. In the case of the body horror sub-genre, we usually get unusual, extreme films. Body horror focuses on grotesque, disgusting, or disturbing violations – both physically and psychologically – of the human body, and sometimes another living being. This subgenre explores alarming physical and psychological transformations, from Nazi-inspired mad science (The Human Centipede, anyone?) to allegories about aging, racism, gender, animal relations, and emotional decay.

“Together,” starring real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco, steers the genre in an unexpected direction. It is a love story wrapped in a gruesome metamorphosis, showing the scary sides of connecting people. The result? One of the most buzzed-about and divisive horror films of 2025.

Here’s everything you need to know about “Together,” including its origins, bizarre plot, and the controversy that’s landed it in court.

What Is Together About?

At first glance, Together may sound familiar to many films you may have seen, because it begins like so many other movies in different horror sub-genres: You can, a couple moving into a new isolated house, face evil and must fight for their life, or even their relationship.

Millie (Alison Brie, known for TV shows “Mad Men,” “Community,” “Glow,“ and movies like “Scream 4,” “Sleeping With Other People”) and Tim (Dave Franco, “Neighbors,” “Now You See Me,” “Nerve”) are a married couple whose relationship has hit a wall. Hoping to rekindle their connection, they trade city life for a remote countryside home. But soon after arriving, they discover something strange inside the house and in a nearby spring. Something that triggers horrifying physical changes.

And yes, those changes eventually involve the couple becoming literally fused, as hinted at by the deeply unsettling (and honestly, brilliant) movie poster. If you ask me, it’s one of the most compelling promo images horror has offered in years.

Beyond the body horror and the disturbing plot, the film operates as a metaphor: the couple’s physical merging mirrors their emotional unraveling. As their individuality erodes, the story questions identity, intimacy, and what it means to stay “together“ when a relationship turns toxic.

Look at the teaser trailer of “Together,“ which thankfully does what teaser trailers should: sets the tone and themes without spoiling the plot or ruining every decent scene from the movie.

From Mardi Gras to Movie Set: Brie and Franco’s Real-Life Love Story

Alison Brie and Dave Franco met at Mardi Gras (a holiday with Christian roots but sometimes celebrated as a secular cultural event) in 2012. A mutual friend asked each of them over dinner if they were into each other by text message, and she got an enthusiastic “yes“ from both of them. Then the friend, willing to get to heaven for the perfect match, showed Brie’s message to Franco, then told Brie that Franco was into it, but made her swear not to tell him she knew. “It was a perfect set-up because we both got to leave the restaurant (and) head out to the evening of drinking and debauchery having a sexy secret that we knew the other person was on board,“ Brie told Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show.” “It was 48 hours of drugs, sex, a lot of making out.”

The two got engaged in 2015 and married two years later, with no children or desire for children yet. At the same time, Franco directed his first film in 2020, a likable horror thriller called “The Rental,“ based on a script he co-wrote. Brie starred in the film as the female counterpart of one of two couples who rent an apartment and begin to suspect that someone or something is watching them. In 2023, “Somebody I Used to Know“ arrived, this time a rather casual romantic comedy about a workaholic woman who returns to her childhood home (Alison Brie, Like It), encounters her ex, and several characters from her past that make her think about the person she has become. Dave Franco is also the director behind the camera, and Franco and Brie wrote the script.

In “Together,“ Franco and Brie return as both leads and producers. According to them, a real-life couple had to play these roles. “Well, first of all, physically, the movie was very demanding,“ Brie told Entertainment Weekly. “There were days that Dave and I were physically attached for several hours, going to the bathroom together. And things like that may have been awkward with people you’re not married to.“ Franco added, “Being literally attached to each other for half the day…was fun.”

Filming occurred in Melbourne, Australia, for a tiny period of 21 days due to tight actor schedules. “Even when we weren’t attached, the movie is very intense, and we were moving at a really quick speed to shoot the film“, Brie Said. “I think the shorthand that Dave and I have together, not just because we’re married, but because we’ve worked together so much, was really helpful in terms of keeping everything moving really quickly and us being on the same page and us being locked into these characters in their relationship.”

The film’s director, Michael Shanks, echoed that sentiment: “Them being a married couple in real life added so much. There was such trust between them. They were so comfortable being vulnerable that our most difficult scenes (often involving emotional and physical intimacy) always flowed with ease. It’s clear how much they lift each other up and make each other even better.”

When Love Becomes a Horror Show

The film was directed and written by the relatively unknown Michael Shanks, his first full-length film after several short films and episodes of TV shows. His most significant project to date is a short stop-motion film called “Rebooted,“ about a stop-motion animated skeleton who learns that the film he was created in his honor will be remade, without him. He has difficulty accepting the news and does a few dinosaur and fire-related things about it. The film has received positive reviews and almost five million views on YouTube.

With “Together,“ Shanks delves into his relationship anxieties. “I love being in love. But as you’re going through that first long-term relationship in your life, I think you sometimes do reach that crossroads where you stop and think to yourself that you’re really sharing a life with someone. Once you move in together, you breathe the same air, eat the same meals, and have the same friends”, he said. “

Anyone in a long-term relationship eventually starts to wonder: Do we have the same friends, eat the same food, breathe the same air—where do I end and my partner begins?“ he told interviewers, describing how he took the idea and pushed it to a literal, grotesque extreme. “This is a film about the potential horror of sharing a life with someone.”

“One of the things I most look for when I watch a film is to see something I’ve never seen before, and there are sequences in this where I truly believe we’ve pulled that off”, he added. “There was one sequence where, after each take, I was just hooting and hollering. I literally couldn’t believe anyone let me shoot something so over-the-top and revolting.”

Brie said the role was physically more demanding than her wrestling scenes in “Glow.” Franco suffered actual injuries, including severe hand burns from a rope-climbing stunt that had to be reshot due to a crew member’s shadow in the frame. “I definitely got beat up more on this film than anything I’ve ever done before,“ Franco said.

Still, if you listen to the people behind “Toegether,” and some critics who have already swatched the movie, it is supposed to be more than pointless “torture porn.” Some critics noted that the film, despite its scenes of disgust, doesn’t take itself too seriously. Brie emphasized that even audiences with a “weak stomach” can find a way to enjoy the film. “I would categorize this movie as body horror for sure, but it also has a lot of heart. There’s almost a romantic component to it”, she added. “I love that body horror is having a moment…but you have to update it. It has to evolve. And so this movie certainly is an evolution of that, and I think it will appeal to people who are not even into body horror.”

The Plagiarism lawsuit Over Together

Just weeks before the film’s theatrical release, controversy erupted. Indie production company “StudioFest” filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Franco, Brie, Shanks, their talent agency VME, and distributor Neon. According to the suit, Together is a “blatant copy” of Better Half, a 2003 short film by Patrick Henry Phelan. StudioFest claims they were pitched to Franco and Brie back in 2020 and got rejected.

In the Plagiarism lawsuit, StudioFest stated that the general plot about a couple getting physically involved, the characters, and even some scenes are suspiciously similar to their film, which is not surprising since some of those scenes involve a Spice Girls record and an almost verbatim reference to Plato’s Symposium.

According to the lawsuit, “Better Half” producers heard about “Together” the day before its screening at the Sundance Film Festival and decided to watch it to see the similarities. They said they were shocked to see their worst nightmare come true: “Together” not only took ideas, but “stole almost every unique aspect of the film’s copyrighted expression.”

We will have to wait and see whether this lawsuit, which the agency says is “frivolous and without merit,” will hold up in court.

When Is Together Coming Out?

Together had its world premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January 2025, where it received glowing early reviews and ignited a fierce bidding war. Neon (“Longlegs,” “The Monkey,” “Presence,” “Immaculate“) acquired distribution rights for a reported $17 million—the biggest sale of the festival.

Meanwhile, the film receives excellent reviews from critics, with 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Even if that rating sometimes lies and the score will drop over time, there is no doubt that this film is worth waiting for.

The U.S. theatrical release date of “Together” is July 30, 2025. Of course, release dates sometimes shift, so keep an eye on the schedule.

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