Good God, the horror genre has been killing it this year. If it wasn’t Ryan Coogler delivering banjo playing vampires, Zach Cregger leading us into yet another messed-up basement or the Philipou Brothers once again reminding us not to not fuck with the dead, then it was the triumphant return of the Final Destination franchise and even though the years isn’t anywhere near over yet, there’s a healthy argument that 2025 could be something of a glowing year for the genre.
But do you know what the year has been missing? Some real down and dirty body horror. You know, the kind of flesh twisting, bone merging stuff that takes the human form and painfully manipulates it into some sort of misshapen, surrealistic work of horrific art that also acts as an on-the-nose metaphor. Well guess what – 2025 now has that too in the form of Together, a warped love story that takes the concepts of separation anxiety and clingyness to awesomely grotesque heights.
Millie Wilson and her longtime boyfriend Tim Brassington are going through something of a rough patch. While Millie has scored a job teaching English at an elementary school, it’s meant that the two have had to relocate to the country which has left aspiring musician Tim pretty trapped. Not only can the thirty-something not drive, thus stranding him from doing any gigs with his friends, but he’s been battling some major emotional issues in the wake of his parent’s death that’s left him distant and uninterested in sex. Matters were made even more uncomfortable when, during their going away party, Millie proposes to him only for Tim to be weirdly hesitant which causes the two to reevaluate their relationship.
In an attempt to make an attempt to narrow the widening, emotional gulf between them, the couple go on a hike through the local woods, but they soon find themselves lost in a rainstorm (typical cityfolk) and worse yet, fall through an overgrown hole to end up in some sort of freaky cave. While the two spend the night while waiting for the elements to abate, Tim sates his thirst in a nearby pool of water and the next morning the two climb their way out and make their way home. But it’s here that strange things start to occur.
When Millie goes to work, Tim finds himself drawn to her like a magnet in her absence and he develops a desperate thirst for her in his bones that soon looks like a horribly anxious form of separation anxiety that causes him to seek her out at her school to cure his lust. However, while Tim worries that he’s showing the same traces of the mental illness that claimed his mother, the physical issues the two are experiencing are far more extreme.
Whether it’s discovering that their flesh will fuse if they get too close or the irresistible pull that threatens to keep them far closer than they’d ever want to be, something is terribly wrong. However, as their relationship deteriorates, the pull grows stronger to the point where there can only be one of two inevitable outcomes. Both are pretty horrible.
I love a good body horror story. There’s something about the warping of the human form I find totally facinating and I’m guess that first time helmer Michael Shanks has a soft spot for it too as Together goes all in to deliver a deeply dysfunctional, anti-love story that will have you both recoiling in revulsion and chuckling at the horrific ridiculousness at this harrowing situation. Basically, Together is about that moment in a long term relationship where you wonder (if only for a second) about the nature of your relationship; are you together because of actual love, or are you at a point where you’re only in a couple because it’s all you know and it’s just comfortable? Matters are also made extra complex by the recent trauma Tim has experienced that caused him to have Ari Aster style nightmares and withdraw emotionally, thus stripping virtually all of the intimacy out of the relationship. Shanks ensures that all the floundering relationship stuff is pretty hard to stomach even before joints starts cracking and flesh starts rippling and I’m sure the majority of the audience can recognise at least some of the instances of automatic thoughtlessness, passive aggressiveness and frustrated spite that spark between a couple that simply just wasn’t what they once were.
Kudos have to got to real life couple, Alison Brie and Dave Franco for playing a pair whose relationship is about to hit the rocks in such a spectacular way and the intimacy they obviously share in real life obviously not only pays off huge in the emotional sequences, but also means that when things start to get biological, their familiarity with one another becomes vital. Both actors bring their comedic background into play too, rooting out the natural black comedy of such a fucked up situation; but their utter lack of preciousness, be it simple playing flawed people or looking like utter shit as their bodies violently betray them proves to make Together a fascinating watch.
To be honest, it can take a little while to get going as there’s a lot of set up to provide such as Damon Herriman’s over-friendly neighbour, the gradual withering of Millie and Tim’s relationship and the discovery of a sunken Lovercraftian church in that creep cave – but once the movie has gotten up to speed, the more freakish and funnier it gets. I’m not sure when modern horror realised that it should drop being so po-faced and embrace the laughs, but I’m glad it has because there’s a strong sense of the type of anything-goes lunacy we usually got from the 80s about a lot of the horror flicks we’re getting this year and when Together is in full swing, the movie only gets funnier the more extreme it gets.
While I don’t want to give away too much about what occurs, anyone hoping to see some profoundly messed up shit will be pleasantly appeased. From hair swallowing, to tendon stretching contortions to a spot of desperate home surgery with a power saw, the movie takes us in some pretty extreme directions that also includes a sex scene that’ll have everyone wincing guaranteed; however, it’ll be the climax that will no doubt have everyone talking – especially seeing as it includes a rather novel use of a Spice Girls song.
Some may complain that the movie wears its themes and allegories too obviously on its mutated sleeve, but isn’t that part of the fun? Yes, the similarities between codependency, a crumbling relationship and fracturing mental health with the body corrupting issues that dominate the second half are all plainly evident, but that’s exactly where the best parts of the humour comes from and what’s the point of being all super subtle about your horror when you can wring some jet black laughs out of some awesomely freakish comparisons? So hold your loved one close – no, closer that that – and let’s get Together.
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