Tim and Millie are very much in love.
Still, like many couples, they find themselves at a crossroads.
Having been together for a decade and still smitten about each other, there are some cracks starting to show beneath the lovey-dovey surface. Something doesn’t quite stick: they haven’t been intimate in months and the unemployed and increasingly distant Tim is still clinging onto his dream of being a rock star.
Millie, on the other hand, is an elementary school teacher who has a lot more figured out. Reaching exasperation point, she suggests that maybe it would be better to split up now rather than later, when it’s more painful.
Oh how prophetic those words are… She just doesn’t know it yet.
Still, even if they’re not on the same page right now, the couple can’t imagine a life without each other and Millie has a plan: she’s going to relocate the couple for her new job. The countryside, away from the city, should settle Tim down. She even puts him on the spot at their going away party by proposing in front of all of their friends. His hesitation before saying “Yes” in this excruciatingly awkward moment creates more tension and reveals quite how hesitant the city boy is on the imminent move.
Once they do get to their new and very spacious abode (on a teacher’s salary, I’ll be damned!), the pair end up going for a hike and find a collapsed structure in the forest. They foolishly get stranded in what can only be described as H.R. Giger’s ideal holiday getaway spot and have to spend the night there, where Tim ends up drinking from a mysterious water source. Always a good idea. Parched, Millie does the same.
Then, something shifts overnight… Or rather, fuses. The pair wake up with their legs slightly stuck together, and it’s a wee bit painful to unstick. And that’s just the beginning, as both Tim and Millie are about to discover what devotion and codependency REALLY mean.
As with any body horror movie, certain references are inevitably going to pop up – chiefly David Cronenberg and more recently Coralie Fargeat, with The Substance having given the genre a rejuvenating squelch. Both comparisons are apt, as Australian first-time writer-director Michael Shanks tips his hat to Cronenberg, as well as John Carpenter in ways which won’t be spoiled here.
However, Shanks manages to develop his own lore by crafting something beneficially blunt.
Together is a Twilight Zone-indebted love fable that morphs into a devilish metaphor about codependency and the fear of commitment in romantic relationships. He employs a winning combination of practical and visual effects to bring his satire to fruition, as well as none other than Plato.
You see, Millie’s new colleague Jamie (Damon Herriman) quotes the ancient Greek philosopher, who explored love and human desire.
Key to this is the concept of soulmates, with the myth detailing how original humans had four legs, four arms and two faces. Because these original creatures challenged the Gods, Zeus split them in two to create modern, weaker humans. This left each split person wandering the earth, searching for their other half.
This all feeds into the finale, and makes the last act both terrifying yet strangely tender.
Another central element to Together’s sticky potency is the casting of Dave Franco and Alison Brie, the real-life husband and wife duo who play Tim and Millie.
Their chemistry is off the charts and the pair fully commit to the escalating physicality at the heart of the increasingly weird scenario, which starts with Tim developing an all-consuming urge to be with Millie at all times. This leads him to break their sexual drought at one point, in what will doubtlessly be 2025’s queasiest and most eye-popping sex scene.
You’ll laugh, you’ll scream, and the gentlemen in the audience will clutch their unmentionables in nightmarish discomfort.
And this is what makes Together such a brilliant addition to an already great year for horror. Like Zach Cregger’s Weapons before it, Shanks understands that the line which separates screaming and laughing is a thin one, and he manages to balance the ominous mood and squirm-inducing sound designed scares with enough dark humour to keep things playful.
The superb line deliveries from both Brie and Franco are central to this, with Tim’s “MUSCLE RELAXANTS!!” shout and Millie’s almost sung “Whiskey for the pain” almost designed to be memed. The script is also peppered with obvious but effective comedic foreshadowing. One is Chekhov’s electric saw, about which Tim tells Millie: “Don’t let me use this.”
You know it’s going to be used. And when it does, brace yourselves.
Additionally, not content with having this year’s most harrowing sex scene, Shanks sets the bar high for 2025’s best needle drop. It’s one of the Spice Girls’ best songs, and it’s used to perfection.
Is Together an icky argument for the perks of being single? Or is it a perversely romantic nightmare that ends up as the ultimate date movie?
Depends on your love life, really… Set up movie night with your partner. You’ll soon find out which.
Together is out in cinemas now.
