‘Together’ (2025)

A body horror romance, ‘Together’ recounts the relationship between Millie (Alison Brie) and Tim (Dave Franco). Having been together for a long time, the two find themselves questioning their lives together. With a considerable strain on their relationship, the two encounter an unnatural force that will compel them to choose a path forward.

Telling us immediately where the two are in their lives, we meet Millie and Tim at their going away party as they prepare to move out to the country where Millie can pursue her career as a teacher. Meanwhile, Tim struggles with his music career and is conflicted about moving away from the city.

After an awkward moment where Millie symbolically proposes to Tim in front of all of their friends, and Tim fails to respond to the gesture, the character’s commitments and personal emotional struggles are revealed. Each questioning the resilience and endurance of their relationship becomes apparent.

Presenting an intriguing opening act, ‘Together’ toys with the idea of delivering more than an interpersonal drama laced with biological horror. One of the feature highlights happens early on, not containing any body horror, the film instead delves into Tim’s psyche. Unknown to the audience at the time, Tim’s parents had expired in a horrific manner.

What we are then presented with can only be interpreted as one of Tim’s suppressed memories resurfacing. As Tim tries to fall asleep just before he and Millie are due to move, he thinks he can hear Millie berating him and subsequently has a nightmare about his deceased parents.

Very effective, the sequence almost promises a leaning towards an intense psychological examination, where Tim’s psyche and trauma are explored, disseminating his fears and worries. Unfortunately, the film veers away from unreliable narrator territory and having only just touched on psychological horror moves swiftly away into romantic drama territory.

Playing off of each other beautifully, Brie and Franco deliver a genuine portrait of a relationship. The image of their partnership, painted with multiple layers of complicated issues, comes off as a true picture of two people struggling to make sense of their lives together. Inconsistent, fearful and unsure on if they’re willing to sacrifice everything for the other person, Brie and Franco deliver a multifaceted and intricate rendering of two people striving.

Ultimately uncovering the secrets of the cave they had been trapped in earlier in the feature, we learn that a sacred well of water allows for two people to merge together, in body and spirit. Tim decides he wants to spend his life with Millie, asking her to merge with him. Millie, acknowledging she loves him, chooses to join together with Tim, fusing into one person.

With the climax of the film revealing Millie and Tim mid-merge, the special effects leave a little room for improvement. Up until that point, ‘Together’ makes great use of practical effects, delivering both a half-merged dog beast and a monstrous depiction of two humans joined who were either not ready or committed enough to becoming ‘whole.’ Shining when it comes to showing Millie and Tim’s bodies partially merged, the film is a soft yet effective entry into the body horror canon.

A little vanilla when it comes to the scares and leaving us wanting more when it comes to the gross-out spectacle, ‘Together’ shines as an interpersonal drama, garnering genuine laughs when Brie and Franco are left on their own to play off of each other. Thoroughly enjoyable as a romantic drama, the film’s director and writer Michael Shanks has chosen wisely in using the horror sub-genre to accentuate deeply intimate and personal aspects of an emotional journey between two people.

Score: 3/4