A few months ago, at the Sundance Film Festival, I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of Michael Shanks’s Together, a body horror flick that stars real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie. In it, they play a co-dependent couple who find themselves physically bonding in horrifying ways too good to spoil in a story like this. You can read our review HERE but the film caused enough of a sensation that Neon snapped it up and are releasing it as their big summer horror flick. Now, to celebrate the movie’s upcoming release, they’ve put out a new teaser that opens with a JoBlo quote! Check it out above.
Of course, the release of Together has been somewhat marred by controversy, with a writer-director named Patrick Henry Phelan stating it was plagiarized from his independent film, Better Half. The writer-director of Together, Michael Shanks, vehemently denied these claims, posting a lengthy statement on social media:
“Have you ever been in a relationship so long that the line between you and the other person starts to blur? I’ve been with my partner for over 16 years — almost half my life. That entanglement of identity, love, and co-dependence is what inspired TOGETHER. It’s not just a script; it’s a reflection of something deeply personal. Tim’s story, his love for Millie, his relationship to his family, his relationship to unfulfilled ambitions as a musician, is completely rooted in my own personal life. I lost my father at a young age in the same way our main character does, his trauma is rooted in my own. To have this called into question is not only deeply upsetting but entirely untrue.”
“I wish I didn’t have to clarify this, but I completed the first draft in 2019 and registered it to the Writer’s Guild of America that same year. In October 2020, I received development funding from Screen Australia to further the project. In 2022, my agent at WME introduced me to Dave Franco. From the very first meeting, we bonded over our love of horror, and I pitched him TOGETHER — a script I had been trying to get into production for years, with no luck. Soon after, he and Alison Brie came onboard to act in and produce the film. To now be accused of stealing this story — one so deeply based on my own lived experience, one I’ve developed over the course of several years — is devastating and has taken a heavy toll.”
Together, which should be able to overcome this drummed up controversy, plays at the Fantasia Film Festival shortly before it’s theatrical debut!
Check out this review from Sundance:
