Married and joined at the hip on screen and off

Married actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco's couple status came in handy for the body-horror thriller Together

- Alison de Souza

LOS ANGELES - Love and terror intersect in the new indie body-horror thriller Together, which stars real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie.

The M18-rated film, which opens in Singapore cinemas on Aug 21, follows dating couple Tim (Franco) and Millie (Brie), whose relationship becomes strained when they move to an isolated countryside home.

But after an incident in a mysterious cave, their bodies begin to repeatedly fuse together upon contact, and each gradually loses control of his or her own physical self.

Speaking at a recent Los Angeles screening of the movie, the American actors — who have been together for more than a decade and married since 2017 — say it is a metaphor for co-dependency and the loss of individuality that can occur in a relationship.

They were also captivated by the novel approach to body horror taken by Australian first-time director Michael Shanks, 34, who also wrote the screenplay.

Says Franco, who appeared in the heist film series Now You See Me (2013 to present): "We were initially just blown away by the horror set pieces, which just felt so innovative, and like nothing we had ever seen before.