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Together is the self-described ‘feel-good body horror’ starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco that’s promising to both scare you silly and tickle your sides this summer.
And while it’s certainly a fun time, it’s not quite the genre-defying movie I hoped for – but it did still leave me thinking about some of its most extreme scenes days later.
Franco and Brie play a couple stuck in a rut after 10 years together, no better evidenced than by a disastrously judged proposal in front of friends that will have you squirming in your seat.
Shortly after that, the creepiest scene with the film’s biggest jump scare pops up; I won’t spoil if for you, but it’s the image that flashed in front of my eyes when I closed my front door after returning home from the screening.
The real-life married couple play off each other well as two people engaged in a relationship slowly circling the drain, the monotony of which is perfectly drilled into your head by the number of times they bleat ‘babe’ at each other.
Their names are, in fact, Tim – a failing musician – and Millie, who is a schoolteacher. They’ve moved outside the city together to allow her to take a meaningful teaching job. But as they settle into their old-fashioned country house, a gross rat-shaped surprise lies in wait, which further sets back the reluctant Tim when it unexpectedly unlocks childhood trauma.
Despite their problems, Tim and Millie then set off for a hike in the nearby woods after her ominous comment: ‘I don’t want to be the dumb city folk who went against nature and lost.’
Of course they are though, promptly falling into a hidden cave in the woods and drinking from its eerie underground lake while they wait for morning to break. The weirdness starts almost immediately when the underground cave appears to come alive – one of Together’s strongest features is how effectively its sound design builds and stretches tension – before they wake to find their legs fused together by what they assume is some form of gross mildew.
Tim initially seems most affected by the couple’s odd experience, unable to bear being apart from Millie – ‘It’s like I’m thirsty all over – but not with you,’ he admits.
You can imagine how that then translates into a desperate sex scene between the pair, which will have you crossing your legs tightly in horror. There’s more still to come too, with Franco’s Tim choking himself awake after inhaling his wife’s hair in his sleep oddly the scene that got to me the most.
Together’s big reveal is no huge surprise, although enjoyably daft while also drawing its inspiration from ancient Greek philosophy. It’s a bit of a an anti-climax when the film has done so well in ratcheting up the tension with classic time-honoured horror scenarios, like Tim panicking in the study as he hears Millie pound down the stairs at a terrifying speed, careering towards him.
Things become especially intense as the couple fights to keep their bodies apart, from creepy contortions to bringing out the trusty electric saw (gag), as the movie crescendos in a pure moment of gross-out horror à la The Substance.
It takes an hour for Together to hit its horror stride and move away from some of the more repetitive relationship drama, becoming more of the watch-between-your-fingers experience the trailer suggested you’d be seeing.
However, it generally has a good sense of humour, demonstrated by its central conceit and a fantastic final act needle drop – but it could have gone further and been more outrageous in the humour.
Plot strands are not always neatly woven together either, especially when it comes to Tim’s past, which seems like an excuse to just add in a few more cool horror tropes and scares by writer-director Michael Shanks, but ultimately ends up a bit meaningless.
Together is a good old-fashioned horror film that gives fans what they want, but doesn’t quite deliver on any claims that it’s revolutionising the genre.
Together releases in UK and Irish cinemas from Friday, August 15.
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