Together: A visceral, spine-tingling horror that fails to entirely satisfy

While the particular cinematic sub-genre of body horror has always had a place, it’s also tended to lurk on the fringes of mainstream “enjoyment” due to its graphic, stomach-turning (sometimes literally) nature. It’s rightly off-putting. 

But last year’s The Substance, starring Demi Moore, which hauled in awards at Cannes through to the Oscars, reminded people that unwanted, uncontrolled transformation of self is rich in commentary potential, and can make for a very memorable, very powerful filmic experience.

Enter Together, the feature debut of filmmaker and YouTuber Michael Shanks. 

In the movie, real-life, long-term couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie play just that: long-term couple Tim Brassington and Millie Wilson, who upend their big city lives so that teacher Millie can accept a more meaningful position in the countryside. 

The move puts strain on the pair’s already fraying relationship, but not quite as much as a hiking mishap that ends with them overnighting in a strange cave. Suddenly, they, or rather, their bodies, can’t bear to be apart.

Certainly, Together is effective on the squeak front thanks to its clever combined use of prosthetics and CGI, with the latter used to augment the visual effects’ practical foundation. After viewing, you probably won’t want to even hold your partner’s hand… just in case. 

However, the film feels smarter in concept than execution of its core themes: the exploration of coupledom and the growing threat of codependency. 

Together’s twists are signposted in buzzing neon, and it doesn’t really provide a reason to root for Tim and Millie, apart from not wanting to see the likeable leads physically tortured. As a domestic unit — barring some credible, light-hearted banter that you’ll only see between people incredibly familiar with each other — there’s no sense that they should be in it for the long haul. The film even trots out the cliché where the woman is the dull, responsible grown-up and the man is stuck in mental adolescence, half-heartedly pursuing a rock star dream and lacking in milestone skills like learning to drive a car. 

It’s strange to say this in an era where so many blockbusters crawl towards the butt-numbing 2-hours-30-minutes mark, but it feels like the 102-minute Together may have benefited from more screen time. 

This, to provide more context for Tim and Millie’s relationship, past and present, and draw out the horror of their “merging” process. 

On that note, Shanks is inconsistent in his playing of the “shock” card, yanking away the camera in one instance, and then lingering too long in another. This is especially true for the film’s climax, where the inclusion of a final shot arguably crosses the tonal line from chilling to silly. 

Mostly, Together is visceral and skin-crawling, but it suffers for releasing in the shadow of Weapons, a far more gripping tale of the dark and unbelievable coming home. If Together is your first body horror experience, you’ll find a premium production that is very watchable — if you have a tolerance for this sort of thing — but one that doesn’t meet its full potential. DM

Together is in South African cinemas now, having released on Friday, 15 August. This review was first published on PFangirl.