‘Together’

Meet your new body horror obsession, Together. Alison Brie & Dave Franco are a couple on the rocks in this unique take on co-dependency, diving head first into an exceedingly outrageous depiction of relational suffocation while delivering plenty of shocking imagery & effective scares along the way. 

There’s a lot of ideas at play here, and the film balances them in such an intelligent & over the top manner. Of course at the forefront is the idea of closeness in a relationship and the claustrophobia it brings in both literal and figurative means, but this also has something to say about the complexities of self identity. It’s endearing, thought provoking & downright gruesome. All of these elements emphasized even further by career best performances from Brie & Franco, who are simply on another level. Their real life chemistry comes through on screen, adding a whole new layer to the wicked journey.

Once this thing gets going, it just keeps escalating into absolute madness. The practical effects/gore on display is truly unlike anything I’ve seen before, which is a tall order. Constant gag after gag in the vain of body horror classics like The Substance & The Thing. There’s plenty of sharp humor behind the intense grotesquerie as well, pair all of that with multiple bone chilling scares and the end result is something truly unforgettable. 

Michael Shanks’ feature debut is something to behold. Feels as extraordinary of a discovery as the likes of Danny & Michael Philippou’s Sundance breakout Talk to Me. Every once in a while we’ll get a new horror feature that completely takes the world by storm, and this is the latest addition in that prestigious lineup. An entirely new kind of beast.