Together
In Michael Shanks’ pedestrian and rather silly body-horror, a couple bond in more ways than they had anticipated when they move to the countryside.
Siamese twinning: Alison Brie and Dave Franco
Image courtesy of Entertainment Film Dists Ltd.
There can be no more intimate an act than to allow someone to insert a part of their body into your own. Or vice versa. Michael Shanks’ debut feature takes this extraordinary notion and runs with it into the dark recesses of body horror.
The start is far from promising, although there is an element of novelty that pulls us along in the hope that all will be resolved, and perhaps even explained. Real-life husband-and-wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie play Tim and Millie, a long-term couple who decide to make the ultimate commitment by moving from the city and into an enormous house in the countryside. Millie has landed a job teaching English at a local elementary, so it’s obvious she can afford such a vast abode, while Tim pursues his adolescent dream of becoming a rock star. There doesn’t appear to be much chemistry between Tim and Millie, but no doubt once they become used to their new situation they will get their act together. In order to bond, they decide to scope out the neighbourhood and go for a hike in nearby woods. However, Tim falls into an undercover cave, and is quickly followed by Millie, and they are forced to spend the night there. In the morning, they scramble out (in what, a minute?) and Tim starts to feel as if he has been taken over by an unseen force…
Novelty can only take a film so far, and once it becomes apparent that Together is completely barmy, it’s hard to suspend one’s disbelief, or to care. The sound effects department was perhaps given too much leeway, while the prosthetics department does its best to keep up. When the gore gets going it is full David Croneberg and one wonders how the film got away with a 15 certificate. No doubt one is not meant to take this at all seriously and a packed cinema and a crate of beer might steer one towards a more blackly humorous reaction. Fans of the cult franchise The Human Centipede may welcome this return to the world of body bonding, but only the final minutes deliver any real fleshy frisson.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman, Mia Morrissey, Karl Richmond, Jack Kenny, Francesca Waters, Aljin Abella, Michael Shanks.
Dir Michael Shanks, Pro Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Mike Cowap, Andrew Mittman, Erik Feig, Max Silva, Julia Hammer and Timothy Headington, Screenplay Michael Shanks, Ph Germain McMicking, Pro Des Nicholas Dare, Ed Sean Lahiff, Music Cornel Wilczek, Costumes Maria Pattison.
Picturestart/Tango Entertainment/30West/1.21/Princess Pictures-Entertainment Film Dists Ltd.
101 mins. USA/Australia. 2025. US Rel: 30 July 2025. UK Rel: 15 August 2025. Cert. 15.
