Body horror is having a moment right now. For the first time in over three decades, the genre made a huge showing at the Oscars, with Coraline Fargeat’s The Substance getting the most awards recognition for the genre since David Cronenberg’s The Fly. Demi Moore was considered an awards season frontrunner for a role in which she morphs into a deformed creature called Elisasue Monstro. Body horror had never been more mainstream, which is why it’s no surprise that some of the best horror movies of the year so far have been innovating with the genre in unprecedented ways. So why not marry a millennial rom-com with a body-horror thriller?
Together, Michael Shanks’ feature directorial debut starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple whose move to a remote cottage leads to a supernatural encounter that morphs their relationship in extreme ways, sounds like it could be an obnoxious combination of genres. But miraculously, Together balances on the tonal tightrope between true body-horror movie and wry rom-com, delivering a terrifically goopy thriller on the perils of codependent relationships that’s equal parts funny, surprisingly moving, and flat-out gross.
Together opens with Tim (Franco) and Millie (Brie) hosting a goodbye party with all their friends, as they prepare to move out of the city and to a remote countryside home for Millie’s job at a small private school. Tim is a musician who has been feeling adrift since he discovered his parents’ bodies in their bedroom, while Millie has been feeling increasingly ignored. But this move could be a fresh start for them: other than a handful of neighbors, there’s no one for miles — it’ll be a chance for them to reconnect, just the two of them. But when a hike in the surrounding woods leads them to a strange cavern with a pool of water they definitely shouldn’t drink from, they start to experience a strange force that literally pulls them together — whether they want it or not.
Together is the kind of squish, goopy body-horror that would’ve resided on the fringes of mainstream cinema just a few years ago, but there’s something about Shanks’ script that makes it feel strangely accessible. It may be because the film is largely focused on the relationship between Tim and Millie — whose easy chemistry is aided by the fact that Franco and Brie are real-life spouses. But it’s definitely because Together is, shockingly, very funny. It’s not the kind of gross-out gallows humor that often comes with body-horror, when everything is so disgusting that you just have to laugh. Its humor comes straight out of the rom-com playbook, with Tim and Millie cracking charming, low-key jokes about wearing the same clothes, or what they’d like as the final Facebook message before they die. The horror only comes in spurts in what is largely a quaint rom-com about a couple trying to recapture their spark for the majority of the film.
But that’s not to say Shanks shies away from making Together a horror film. Tim is plagued by visions of that night that he discovered his parents’ bodies — a truly disturbing scene that haunts him so much it’s steadily destroying his own relationship with Millie. And once the supernatural incident kicks off, Shanks ramps up the classic horror hallmarks — from jumpscares to creepy monologues, brilliantly gooey prosthetics, and plenty of gore. One particular scene involving a handsaw is a particularly nasty watch-through-your-fingers apex of the movie. It helps that Franco and Brie are both totally game for the film’s more gruesome turn. Franco, so long associated with millennial raunch-comedies, takes to horror well, but it’s Brie’s trembling but steely performance that really elevates Together from being just another genre remix.
The truly terrific tonal trick of Together, however, lays in how Shanks seamlessly merges the horror and romantic elements. Together’s body horror is not simply for body horror’s sake, but a (not particularly subtle) depiction of its painfully codependent central relationship. Even with heavy-handed metaphor, Together manages to find surprising emotional catharsis in a climax that’s simultaneously sweet and horrifying.
Together is a refreshing mix of two genres that seem like they could, or maybe even should, not mix. But its witty, and frequently brutal, depiction of a codependent relationship through the lens of body horror is an inspired one, and a surprisingly entertaining one.
Together made its SXSW Film & TV Festival premiere on March 7, following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival January 26. It releases in theaters on August 1.
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