Writer/director Michael Shanks uses horror as the milieu to look at whether a couple stays together – literally – out of love or obligation in this interesting mumblecore horror throwback.
One of the things that makes horror so appealing for enterprising writers or directors is how it can give you an opportunity to explore relationship dynamics or the tensions within a relationship by adding a bit of a supernatural lens to attract a crowd for those ideas that might not explore them otherwise. If you look at Ari Aster’s MIDSOMMAR (2019) for example, the film is really about a dying relationship where neither wants to admit to their partner that it is ending. It also just also happens to have a Scandinavian death cult’s pageantry happening while they work out their situation.
Shanks’ TOGETHER is the same sort of situation. It examines the relationship between Millie (Alison Brie), a school teacher who wants to move to upstate New York to have better opportunities as a teacher and her “boy/partner” Tim (Dave Franco, a would-be rock star in his late 30s who is floating by in his life still trying to make his big opportunity happen. millie’s brother remarks to Tim that he thought Tim dating Millie would make her cooler, but its made him milquetoast and risk-averse. The degree of this is seen in Tim agreeing to the move upstate with Millie just to make her happy while he struggles with what to do with his life. When Millie proposes to Tim at their going-away party and he hesitates, she sees this as a warning sign – they should separate now because it’ll be harder later. These red flags about them needing to separate if they don’t see a future in each other are literal red flags to the predicament they eventually find themselves in when the two inadvertently fall into a dilapidated chapel as they fail to communicate on a hike together. Something in that cave affects the two and they start finding themselves inexplicably connected. At first, it seems fun as it seems to rekindle a spark in their dying relationship. But soon, it’s no laughing matter as their bodies start to fuse together if left to their own devices. Their bodies want to – literally – be together no matter what they do and as they search for the cause, it seems as if there is no way out for them – relationship or not.
I will say right now, NEON is promoting this film as “the scariest film of the year” – I would say that’s hyperbole to the highest degree. I wouldn’t say TOGETHER is actually scary at all. If it is, it’s in what a couple in a bad place might think of seeing reflections of the worst parts of a bad relationship reflected on the screen. When Tim is more worried about losing his phone than whether his girlfriend got hurt in a big fall, it can ring true if you’ve ever been a self-centered or narcissistic in your relationship. The body horror elements in this film are more akin to those in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 – there’s moments when they’re visceral, but largely played for laughs or to setup a jump scare. If you’re squeamish about contortion or the idea of having to saw off a body part, then you might have an issue. By and large, this is nowhere near as disturbing as the contortion on body horror in LET ME IN or THE SUBSTANCE, both films that this may have taken some queues from in terms of inspiration. However, this is a good film. Shanks’ script is very much in the mumblecore tradition of films like the Duplass Brothers or Joe Swanberg. The real terror is the unspoken dread of relationship issues and airing those unspoken doubts and frailties in yourself and the relationship you’re in. They manifest because of the dread of body horror in the worst way; who would want to be fused to someone they might not love, but only tolerate. Especially as the film presents the worst elements of things bound together, like a literal rat’s nest of entangled rats where they’re all dead except for one that slowly takes its last breath as its cooked by electric wires. Tim fears that he might be leaving better things behind by staying with Millie, while Millie thinks Tim’s rock star aspirations are what’s keeping him from being with her- both physically and emotionally. Brie and Franco’s chemistry as a real-life couple breathes life into Tim and Millie and makes them feel lived in, real people. In the end, that’s what makes the film work as well as it does, the relationship drama is what makes the film real, the body horror is just the audience’s window into the relationship.
I enjoyed TOGETHER a lot. The film is compelling, even if it feels a little Ira Levin-ish in the way it draws out the film’s twists which are a bit obvious to a cinephile familiar with deliberately paced horror. It has shades of Stepford Wives/Rosemary’s Baby in delivering a twist about the origin of their body horror malady. But much like MIDSOMMAR (2019) or 2022’s SIGNIFICANT OTHER, it does a great job of using horror/the other-wordly to explore complicated relationship dynamics in a way that honors that relationship coming to a conclusion in a way where a partner or both grows emotionally as a consequence of that change. It may not be that scary, but it is very compelling, to see two become one, as Ginger Spice might’ve said in the late 1990’s.
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TOGETHER (2025)
★★★★ of ★★★★★ stars
A compelling relationship drama that takes a minute to get started, but draws you in, even if its not as scary as its hyped up as being.
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