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Real-life husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie explore co-dependency through the lens of body horror in the crowd-pleasing Together. When peppy teacher Millie (Brie) and failed musician Tim (Franco) move out of the city and to the country, their dependency on each other becomes dangerous.
Millie is a sweet grade-school teacher, and Tim is a neurotic musician overcoming the traumatic death of his parents. She hopes that moving out of the city and away from the fumes of his teenage ambitions may help him see clarity. While she has landed a job in a small school in a welcoming community, he stays at home with no driver’s licence or internet connection. The narrative is full of subtle switches in gender roles, with her asking for physical intimacy while he demands more emotional support.
After ten years together, Millie and Tim are at the awkward stage of their relationship. They need each other rather than want each other, unmarried and passionless, but not entirely without love. They even admit they begrudgingly are trapped because she drives him everywhere and is clearly the breadwinner. While she works, he stays at home and cooks the meals she can’t be bothered to learn how to cook. Some people call it soulmates, but they see it more as being stuck with someone you are comfortable with, because you don’t want to try something new.
One of the first things the couple does in their new rural location, on the recommendation of Millie’s colleague (an underused Damon Herriman), is to hike. On this hike, the couple finds themselves trapped in a rainstorm, in a cave filled with mysterious objects and possibly supernatural forces. When they awaken, having spent the night in the underground cave, they find a mysterious substance has stuck their legs together. While they manage to pry themselves apart this time, this is just the start of a range of mysterious circumstances that force the couple to become physically closer.
Together is a whip-smart relationship comedy/drama hidden in a body horror. Much of the first act dissects the couple’s relationship and where they are in their current stage of life. Taking the time to explore Millie and Tim and their trauma makes the later horror aspects more impactful. Together would simply not work if the nuances of Millie and Tim’s nuances dynamic are already laid out on the table.
The real-life chemistry between Franco and Brie helps Millie and Tim instantly feel like a lived-in couple, for better or worse. There is clear love between the two, even when sarcastic comments and insensitivity undercut the romance. Neither is the bad guy in the relationship, nor does the film want you to choose a side. It’s just what happens when people fall in love in their 20s, stay together, and get complacent in their 30s.
While body horror has had a resurgence in recent years, most notably with last year’s The Substance, Together is strangely demure. With just a few set pieces that will make your skin crawl, the film relies more on the audience’s own imagination and fears. Arlo Markantonatos’ practical work does the heavy lifting in the horror we do see, blending CGI, VFX, and practical effects surprisingly effortlessly, considering the low budget. Fans of gross-out horror may be disappointed in some of the cuts away, shielding the audience from the real gory moments. The gore is merely an accompaniment to the relationship drama, not the catalyst for it.
Together isn’t concerned with freaking out audiences with body horror. Instead, it plays much of the gruesomeness for laughs. The humour never feels misplaced or trying too hard, helped by Franco and Brie’s charming performances. The gore mimics situations most couples will recognize, elevated to its skin-crawling worst. The film knows when to build up anticipation, when to show the blood, and when to break the ice with a joke.
Dave Franco gives a standout performance as Tim, a man who is essentially an overgrown, indecisive teenager. While lesser actors would turn him into a dislikable skulking manchild, Franco humanizes him. While the comedy is a highlight of this script, Franco is so good at recalling Tim’s trauma that it’s a shame the film didn’t lean heavier into the drama. Tim’s backstory of his parents’ loss, which haunts him throughout, is told in such a heartbreaking way that it could have been its own movie.
Franco’s star shining doesn’t necessarily mean Brie’s light is dimmed. Millie is given much less to do in comparison to Tim in Together. The mystical body changes start happening to Tim first, much of which Millie believes is due to her partner’s mental health issues. She only starts caring when it happens to her, which often reflects real life, but means Brie spends most of the film designated to nagging her girlfriend. By the time her character joins in the supernatural predicament, audiences know what will happen before she does.
Together ends on a strangely unsatisfying note. The final act rushes through explanations about the couple’s new mysterious magnetism to each other, answering questions that would have been better left unsaid. For a movie so proudly weird, the last act is far too predictable and falls into cliches that this film should be smart enough to avoid. It almost would have been more satisfying if this film ended on a more open-ended note, instead it speeds through an expected explanation that most people will see coming, thanks to some earlier lingering shots.
Michael Shanks’ script is immensely funny. The jokes in Together are as good as any sitcom about a bickering couple. His writing is sharp and knowing, having clearly watched many a relationship fall apart over the years. It’s hard not to see parts of your own life and relationships within this script to the point that seeing this movie could end marriages. The writer/director approaches the story of Tima and Millie more like an allegory of a co-dependent couple trying to remember who they were before they became a unit forced to make all decisions together than a traditional horror.
Together isn’t just another body horror made to make audiences feel squeamish. It’s a smart exploration of long-lasting relationships and whether staying together through the rough patches is really the right idea. While the ending falls a little flat in its need to resolve mysteries, this twisted romance will force you to explore your own relationship and views on staying together for the sake of it.
Grade: B
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Together
With a move to the countryside already testing the limits of a couple's relationship, a supernatural encounter begins an extreme transformation of their love, their lives, and their flesh.
Release Date: July 30, 2025
Director: Michael Shanks
Cast: Alison Brie , Dave Franco , Damon Herriman
