PLOT: A co-dependent couple (Alison Brie and Dave Franco) relocate to the countryside but discover their devotion to each other may be even more extreme than they thought when their bodies start to merge.
REVIEW: Together rocked the house here at Sundance (and did the same weeks later at SXSW). Premiering as part of the midnight section, it’s a rock-solid body horror romp that’s further evidence of the genre’s revival and makes an arresting debut for writer-director Michael Shanks. Sporting the kind of electric energy too often missing from horror movies these days, with a propulsive pace and style that reminded me of the best of eighties horror flicks, this will likely be a hot ticket item for any big distributor hitting Park City. Hopefully, anyone who buys it will give it a theatrical run, as it plays like gangbusters with an audience.
In it, Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie) are a couple at a crossroads. They’ve been together for a decade and still absolutely love each other, but as the old saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt. They haven’t been intimate in months. Tim still holds onto dreams of being a rock star, despite being thirty-five and largely unemployed. At the same time, Millie has a normal job as an elementary school teacher and pushes him to settle down into a life in the countryside away from the city. Not even being able to drive a car, Tim starts to feel like a hostage, while Millie starts to feel like she’s married to an eternal adolescent.
One day, while hiking, they fall into a cave and discover a hidden, subterranean chapel. When they make the mistake of drinking from an underground body of water, they start to find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other’s bodies, and every time they try to separate, their skin doesn’t want to let go.
While Together could have been a quiet, one-location piece, Shanks’s film has an impressive scale, with excellent production design and some truly nifty scares. Some of the best scenes depict Tim and Millie’s bodies uncontrollably contorting as they’re attracted to each other like magnets. They use extreme tactics to separate themselves, which had the audience hooting and hollering.
The casting of real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie is incredibly potent, as their chemistry is so strong. In another, more conventional horror film, the couple would start to hate or turn on each other as the horror gets more extreme. Instead, you never doubt Tim and Millie’s deep love for each other. Anyone who’s ever been in a long-term relationship will relate to the couple’s squabbles, as even in the most loving relationship, the fear of losing your own identity in favour of coupledom is a real thing. Shanks’s movie makes it literal, as their bodies start to become one. Gore hounds will not be disappointed by some of the more nauseating scares, with excellent practical effects and some well-placed jump scares peppered in.
It’s a strong pivot to horror for Franco and Brie, who previously dipped their toe into the genre with The Rental, which Franco directed. They produced this one and seem to have a real love for the genre. What’s refreshing about Together, especially in comparison to more cerebral recent fare, is just how fun it is – which is the aspect that made this feel a little bit like an eighties film. It wants you to have a good time, and the audience I saw this will eat it up. Horror fans are going to have a blast.
