Director: Michael Shanks
Writer: Michael Shanks
Cast: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman

The idea of a ‘soulmate’, or ‘other half’, is a notion that humans have been running with since we could put words to feelings. That sense of something having been missing until we’ve met someone who appears to ‘complete’ us is universally felt. There’s a (possibly comedic) theory put forth by Plato in his Symposium that imagines humans once being two parts of a whole, a whole that was separated by gods who feared the power of humans, and thus people feel complete once they’ve found someone who could have been that literal other half. It sounds romantic, but what if someone took it down a more horrific path? Will Michael Shanks’s film make you feel whole again, or will it leave you running in the other direction and professing a life of singledom?

Elementary school teacher Millie (Brie) and her aspiring musician partner of ten years Tim (Franco) move out of the city to the countryside where Millie is to begin a new job, with their relationship already being under some strain. While hiking in the woods on their doorstep, they find themselves trapped in a cave and spending the night. The next day, Tim begins to apparently lose control of his body and senses, causing Millie to become highly concerned. Soon, they discover another couple had recently gone missing near their house, and Tim starts to put the pieces together to figure out why he is suddenly acting so strangely.

This film has to be one of the better body horrors released in the past twenty years. It paces the story well and deftly builds the suspense, utilising jump scares in exactly the way they’re supposed to be, mainly being that they’re not built up with music or soundscapes that deaden the impact. The prologue provides little context but stirs intrigue, and though the initial introduction to the main characters feels somewhat formulaic, we are soon drawn into their fraught relationship. Much of the allegorical side of the film comes across as slightly patronising at times, but the ways in which certain scenes are meant to reflect Tim and Millie’s relationship get away with being rather on-the-nose due to their horrific nature. My biggest gripe with the film is the antagonist’s motivations. There’s not a lot of substance to it beyond their personal preference as to how Tim and Millie should live their lives, so the antagonist becomes little more than a plot device to push the horror forward rather than an actual threat.

Without giving anything away, the special effects are highly convincing and are, for lack of a better term, gross in the best possible way. I personally am a huge horror fan and pride myself on being fairly numb to horror (the gorier, creepier and stranger the film the happier I am, if done well), but this one had me wanting to hide behind my hands on at least two occasions, which I consider to be the true mark of a GOOD horror film. The sets and locations are quite minimal, but Shanks and his crew managed to make an impact with very little to work with. It was shot in under a month, which is quite astounding considering the level of detail and effort put into it, particularly from the VFX and make up departments. If you enjoyed body horror along the lines of The Substance, you’ll certainly derive some warped entertainment from this one, too.

In reality, Dave Franco and Alison Brie are a married couple. Whether or not this made any real difference to their overall performances is hard to say, however there would likely have been an extra layer of comfort between the two when it came to more intense and/or intimate scenes that lend a wonderful realism to their performances and the film at large. Franco does a great job of descending Tim into some kind of madness, while Brie keeps up appearances as Millie tries to hold on to sanity at all costs. As a pair their chemistry is excellent, which is to be expected, and the film features plenty of comical moments that work because of their timing, but individually they work their scenes wonderfully and keep all attention where it should be. Damon Herriman plays Jamie, a co-worker and new friend of Millie’s, and although Jamie isn’t exactly a standout character, Herriman’s performance is subtle enough to keep the audience guessing about him, if only for a short time before Jamie’s role in Tim and Millie’s lives becomes clear.

One of the best things about Together, and many decent horror films, is the blending of multiple sub-genres in an attempt to create something somewhat unique. With its combination of psychological, supernatural and body horror with a healthy sprinkling of comedy and even a dash of romance, it becomes its own hybrid in a genre that’s tough to stand out in. It even has a philosophical side that can leave you thinking about a few things when it comes to relationships, but it will most likely leave you with nightmarish images burned into your brain.