6 Times Real-Life Couples Co-Starred In Horror Movies Together, And Why It Works So Well

I can say from experience that, in my opinion, some of the best romantic relationships are shared by two people who love sharing moments of chills and thrills with each other. In that same vein, I have a lot of respect and admiration for couples who have joined forces to create moments of chills and thrills for others, such as the stars and co-producers of Together, Dave Franco and Alison Brie.

The husband and wife duo are far from the first real-life couple to star in a horror movie together, and, because of the genuine onscreen chemistry they bring to the new 2025 movie, I sure hope they are not the last. In fact, let's begin my little breakdown of notable Hollywood power couples who made some great scary date movies over the years with the stars of Together.

Dave Franco And Alison Brie (Together)

Recent releases like the Oscar-winning The Substance and The Ugly Stepsister have paved the way for a golden era of body horror movies that continues with writer and director Michael Shanks' Together. The new horror movie stars the aforementioned Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, who find themselves growing too close for comfort when a mysterious force causes them to be involuntarily bound by flesh.

Echoing Eric Eisenberg's Together review, Franco and Brie portray the troubling circumstances of their characters' relationship, even those existing before the supernatural starts to make things worse, so flawlessly that you can't help but wonder about the state of their actual marriage. Of course, by the end, it becomes clear they possess more than enough chemistry to make this bizarre and unsettling, but also funny and even heartwarming thriller a satisfying and touching experience.

John Krasinski And Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place)

I believe 2018's A Quiet Place boasts one of the most astonishingly unique concepts for an alien invasion movie I have ever seen: a world overrun with malevolent, non-seeing extra-terrestrials, forcing the remains of humanity to live in silence. However, I also believe the key to its unnerving effectiveness lies in the lead performances by John Krasinski (who also co-writes and directs) and Emily Blunt.

As Lee and Evelyn Abbott, the beloved power couple, who wed in 2010 and have since had two children, deliver a compelling and authentic sense of devotion to one another and desperation to protect their family at all costs. Had Krasinski not cast his own wife to play his onscreen partner, the film's man-versus-monster suspense could have easily lacked the breathless urgency that made it an instant sci-fi movie classic.

Jeff Goldblum And Geena Davis (The Fly)

Together is not the first body horror flick to star a real-life couple, but it might be the first to involve both romantic leads experiencing the same grotesque situation first-hand. In David Cronenberg's 1986 version of The Fly, Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Seth Brundle slowly becomes a half-human, half-insect hybrid while the love of his life, Ronnie Quaife (Geena Davis), only witnesses the dehumanizing process in shock and heartbreak.

Goldblum and Davis were engaged at the time they shot the revered horror movie remake, having actually met on the set of a 1985 horror-comedy movie called Transylvania 6-5000, and tied the knot the following year, only to split in 1990, according to People. Their genuine affection for each other, which appears to have survived their divorce, based on their 2024 SAG Awards appearance, explodes on the screen, cementing The Fly as one of horror's most unforgettable romantic tragedies.

David Arquette And Courtney Cox (The Scream Movies)

Watching the Scream movies in order is fascinating in the way the cleverly meta slasher franchise traces two notable timelines in pop culture. The subsequent films not only illustrate the modern evolution of the horror genre, but also that of the relationship between two of its most famous stars, David Arquette and Courteney Cox.

The Friends cast member, playing journalist Gale Weathers, and the Dewey Riley actor met on the set of the 1996 original, were dating while they shot the sequel (after some encouragement from Wes Craven), and were married during the third one, but had split before reprising their characters as husband and wife in 2011's Scream 4. However, Cox has since referred to Arquette as her "best friend "(according to People), and that shows in their willingness to reunite and play their roles as divorcees in 2022's Scream, which saw Dewey succumb to Ghostface's knife. However, Arquette has somehow been cast in Scream 7, so it looks like the reign of Dewey and Gale is, thankfully, not over just yet.

Freddie Prinze Jr. And Sarah Michelle Gellar (I Know What You Did Last Summer)

Scream is not the only '90s slasher movie favorite from which romance bloomed behind the scenes. In I Know What You Did Last Summer, Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Ray Bronson may have been dating Jennifer Love Hewitt's Julie James, but the actor really had his eye on their co-star, Sarah Michelle Gellar.

After falling in love on the set of the 1997 thriller, they would later wed in 2002, which is the same year they shared a kiss as Fred and Daphne in the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie. Since Gellar's Helen did not survive the first Summer, the couple was not able to reunite for the arguably more fun 1998 sequel, but she would make a surprise cameo in the 2025 reboot, achieved through a dream sequence, that also allowed her and Prinze the opportunity to have a fun family trip in Australia, where the legacyquel as filmed, as she shared with the country's iteration of Today.

Eli Roth And Lorenza Izzo (Aftershock)

Until their divorce in 2018 after four years of marriage, horror multi-hyphenate Eli Roth and actor and model Lorenza Izzo were one of the genre's top power couples, collaborating on projects like Netflix's Hemlock Grove, The Green Inferno, Knock Knock, and The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Their personal and professional relationship began with a disaster thriller from 2012 called Aftershock.

In addition to co-writing and producing the thriller from director Nicolás López, Roth stars alongside Izzo as survivors of a deadly earthquake in Chile struggling to make it out of the ruined city safely. The Chilean-born actor shared with WWD that she was cast in a leading role when Roth discovered she could speak English and, after spending the entire shoot together and boasting a chemistry that comes through effectively in the film, they became more than scene partners.

It is celebrity couples like these, in addition to the likes of Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer, who prove to me that sometimes the key to a great horror movie, especially ones in which romance plays a pivotal role, is casting two people whose love offscreen is so strong, it's scary.