Whisper House Press

Film Title: Together

Director: Michael Shanks

Writer: Michael Shanks

Starring: Alison Brie, Dave Franco

USA Wide Release Date: July 30, 2025

First Release: Sundance Film Festival, January 2025 (See Capone’s review here)

Zerbe’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Could codependency kill you?

That’s the question in Together, the film starring real-life husband and wife Alison Brie and Dave Franco who play a codependent couple (Millie and Tim, respectively) who’s just moved to a secluded town for Millie’s new teaching job. Tim will commute to stay in his rock band.

After settling, Millie and Tim go for a hike, fall into a mysterious cave, and become trapped. Tim drinks the cave’s water before the couple escapes the next morning. We soon see that the cave has affected Tim via his unknowing attempts to physically merge with Millie.

Tim recently went through some insane family trauma, so he’s dealing with a lot. That’s why, when the crazy merging shenanigans start, Millie excuses them, making excuses for her husband. It’s getting old, so that doesn’t last long, especially when the incidents get progressively crazier.  

Brie is great. There’s a moment where her Millie goes too far with a snarky comment and Brie conveys it perfectly. And the drama between her and Tim is enough to where you forget the horror elements (a dinner scene is particularly awkward). Franco is fine—really good, even. He’s essentially playing the film’s monster or serial killer, at times at least. But he sells the drama with his wife and his personal tragedy/backstory. 

The film at times seems a bit like it’s just trying to shock you or trying to think of the craziest things it can do with its concept. This works sometimes—a scene where Tim is ingesting/inhaling Millie’s hair in his sleep is creepy, while it doesn’t work at other times—the physics of the couple being physically drawn to each other is hard to swallow, occasionally. 

I do love when a movie gets you invested in the rules it sets up. Millie and Tim use muscle relaxers to stop the merging, and I thought that was clever. 

Where the film really excels is in its use of metaphor depicting codependency. They say a lot of things like, “Are you coming to bed?” as though they can’t imagine going to bed alone. There’s also a callback, once they’re literally and physically attached to each other, to an earlier line about “splitting” before it would become too difficult. 

This high-concept horror, ultimately, will stick with me. Brie and Franco are great together, and the film really explores the potential of deadly codependency.

Guest Reviewer: Robert Zerbe

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Robert Zerbe’s writing has previously appeared in Trembling With Fear and on the Creepy podcast. He has yet to hack his obsessive-compulsive disorder into something useful. Robert lives in Florida with his wife, two children, and love of movies. You can follow him on Bluesky at @runonsandwich.

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