"It's Elegant Body Horror": Dave Franco & Alison Brie Praise The Director Of Their Sundance Horror Hit With 100% RT Score
It's the stars' first acting together in 7 years.
Alison Brie and Dave Franco are back together on screen for the first time in seven years with their Sundance breakout hit, Together. The acting-producing duo, also a married couple of seven years, last acted together in the dual 2017 releases of The Disaster Artist, the comedic exploration of the making of Tommy Wiseau's The Room, and The Little Hours, a comedic interpretation of two of the stories in The Decameron. They did, however, work together on the well-received horror-thriller The Rental, in which Brie starred and Franco made his feature directorial debut, and well-received rom-com Somebody I Used to Know, which they co-wrote together.
Though they haven't starred in anything together for some time, that hasn't stopped them from looking for new opportunities, which ultimately brought them to Michael Shanks' Together. The horror-comedy centers on Tim and Millie, a longtime couple whose relationship is currently on rocky ground following a failed marriage proposal and a move to Tim's childhood home in the country away from their friends, as Millie takes a teaching job while Tim continues his music dreams. When their efforts to revitalize their relationship coincide with a supernatural event, they find themselves having to confront their feelings and a chilling threat.
RelatedSundance 2025 Preview: 7 Biggest Movies That Could Dominate The YearSundance offers up huge movie premieres and under-the-radar gems. Here's our predictions for the films that could breakout and dominate 2025.
In honor of the movie's Sundance Film Festival premiere, ScreenRant interviewed Dave Franco, Alison Brie and Michael Shanks to discuss Together. The acting-producing couple reflected on the journey to find a new movie to act together in after their dual 2017 releases, as well as how their experience with Shanks compared to their previous horror genre experiences. Shanks, meanwhile, celebrated his collaborative relationship with the two as both the producers and stars of the film, while also sharing some of his genre influences for the film.
Shanks' Together Also Provided Them With The Opportunity To Do Something "So Different"As previously noted, it's been a while since Franco and Brie have starred together in anything, even though they've worked together on the former's directorial projects. That being said, that's not to say that they haven't been approached with opportunities to star in projects together, or that they're not looking, but more comes down to them being "pretty selective" about when to play a couple in a movie or TV show:
Dave Franco: I think we are kind of actively trying to find something to do together every couple years, just because we have the greatest time.
Alison Brie: And usually, Dave has to write it. So that takes a long time. [Laughs]
Dave Franco: Right, that takes a while, yeah, that's fair. [Chuckles] And then in terms of choosing the right thing, a lot of people do come to us to play couples in certain scripts, but we're pretty selective, because we don't want to over expose ourselves as a couple and make everyone sick of seeing us. But this felt like the right one, because the couple in the movie, they've been together over 10 years, and we felt like our real relationship could lend itself really well to that dynamic.
When reflecting on their previous experiences in the horror genre, including Brie's Scream 4 role and Franco's The Rental, they both praise Shanks for providing them the opportunity to do something "so different" from their prior works. The producers-stars particularly point to the physicality required for the film, with Franco recalling he had "bruises over my entire body" by the end of production on Together:
Alison Brie: This movie is so different from anything either of us have done before, and from a lot of horror that's out there. I think physically, the demands were high, higher than anything I've done before. We've both done really physical work, but the demands in this movie are bizarre.
Dave Franco: Bruises over my entire body by the end, we documented the whole thing to prove it. [Chuckles]
Alison Brie: I do think Scream 4 is so great and fun, but I had sort of a smaller role. This is truly the two of us the whole time, all day, every day, at a 10. I think we were sort of like kids diving into that, really, the fun of the horror. Let's make a movie!
Dave Franco: And then in terms of how Shanks is different than me as a director, I think he's incredible with VFX. This is the world that he comes from, and this movie has a lot of practical effects, but it has a lot of VFX, as well. He's just a master, and it's very beautiful. When you think of body horror, sometimes you think like, very gross, and like squishy and whatever. And there's elements of that, but at the same time, he did something that it's like —
Alison Brie: Elevated.
Dave Franco: It's elegant. [Laughs]
Alison Brie: It's elegant body horror.
He Also Has Some Glowing Praise For Franco & Brie's Producorial SupportWhile Shanks has been a filmmaker for over a decade, Together marks his feature directorial debut after helming a variety of short films and TV series, including The Wizards of Aus. With his first movie seeing him partner with Franco and Brie in both a producing and starring position, the writer/director was floored by his experience in working with the two, saying "support is the operative word" for their involvement with the film:
Michael Shanks: I think support is the operative word there. They were, as with many of our producers, just like a shield around myself and the project, to make sure that it stayed true what was on the page, and that we got the best out of it.
With the body horror genre having a resurgence in popularity now, filmmakers are certainly striving to create new and exciting takes on the subgenre, with this year's Sundance also seeing the release of the gruesome twist on Cinderella, The Ugly Stepsister. While Shanks strove to not only make something original, but even scenes that audiences wouldn't expect, he did have a solid list of genre inspirations for Together, including an M. Night Shyamalan film he praised as being underrated:
Michael Shanks: Definitely. When you talk about body horror, you can't look past John Carpenter's The Thing, Cronenberg's The Fly, obviously. But in terms of other stuff that I found really inspirational for this film, like the Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie, Cure, is just something that really kind of haunts me. And in terms of some of the camera moves, I hope that you can maybe feel some influences, like early Shyamalan. That's just a guy whose camera direction I always thought as exquisite, specifically, something like Signs. It was a really formative film for me when I saw it when I was a kid. It's underrated. I love it. I find it's moving, it's got this real kind of humanist heart at the center of it, and yet it scared the s--t out of me as a kid, and still does. I love it.
Given the movie is just as much about Tim and Millie's rocky relationship as it is about the fun that could be had from the horror events, Shanks acknowledges that the mix of tones was what he found "scariest about the project ". Even still, the writer/director hopes audiences come away from the movie feeling it to be an "exciting narrative" that also feels as unique to them as it did for him when he was developing it:
Michael Shanks: Well, that was definitely the stuff that I found scariest about the project. The work that I've done in the past has largely been more comedic, or more ironic, and you can kind of hide behind that. But here, there are scenes where we going for the jugular of couples butting heads, and as somebody that's been in a relationship myself for a long time, much like the couple in the film, it can get real, it can get intense. But, with these guys, they're just such pros. I needn't have worried, you just get on the set, it's like, "Okay, cool. This works, you guys are nailing it. Great!" [Chuckles]
I think, for me, one of the jumping off points to starting any project is I really want to make something that is — I don't want to be like, "I want to make weird s--t," but I want to make stuff that hopefully feels really unique, but I like putting that through a structure that is really graspable and really quite entertaining and really audience forward. So, I hope that people are coming away from this being like, "What the hell was that?," but also never losing their way and really feel taken through an exciting narrative.
Check out more Sundance 2025 interview coverage here, including:
Together made its world premiere at Sundance on January 26 and was swiftly acquired by NEON for a wide release on August 1.
Source: ScreenRant Plus
Your RatingTogether Release Date January 26, 2025 Runtime 102 Minutes Director Michael Shanks Writers Michael ShanksAlison Brie
Dave Franco
Damon Herriman
Together is a supernatural drama following a couple whose relocation to the countryside instigates a mysterious event, profoundly impacting their relationship, lives, and physical identities.
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