‘Together’ Is about Terror, Codependence, and Endless Love

Commitment is scary, especially when it requires sacrifice. It’s something Tim (Dave Franco) has to understand as he decides to put his version of life on hold in order to follow his girlfriend, Millie (his real-life wife, Alison Brie), into the country for her new job opportunity. Tim has been struggling since he recently discovered a horrific scene at the home of his parents, something that’s bled into his work and love lives. Looking for a fresh start, the pair pack up and ditch the bustle of the city for a quieter life upstate, where Millie is the breadwinner and Tim can gather up the remnants of his music career. The dynamic is shaky, their relationship already chugging along on fumes as a result of Tim’s headspace, and it’s further tested when Tim feels like he’s given up his life to commit to hers. The duo stumbles, but ultimately works through what’s happening since they do, in fact, love each other. But their love is tested not just by the punishing isolation of the country but also by the mysterious pull that seems to be physically fusing their bodies together.

Of course, two bodies slowly being slammed together makes for some delicious frights to the tune of appendage mutilation and the best use of a Sawzall outside Mom and Dad. Body horror is the intention; the film is marketed with shots of lips sticking together after a kiss and that wild shot of eyelashes seemingly swallowing each other. The idea of their skin and bones crinkling into one mass is so powerful, and the lighting and sound design elevate those moments to something truly enveloping.

Though there’s no shortage of gross scenes and gore gags, Together often feels like Body Horror Lite, with it sometimes shying away from the really good stuff in order to beat us with its metaphor. I appreciate the compulsion to give a satisfying explanation that allows for the audience to be surprised by twists and reveals, however, it seems to undermine its faith in its own metaphor by working so hard to justify it. Its larger reveals push it from the realm of The Fly or the more recent The Substance and into the territory of movies like The Invitation or Midsommar (and in the best fleeting moment, The Shining). There are the clear nods to vintage John Carpenter and David Cronenberg, but the romance also makes it skate with Significant Other and The One I Love.

It’s perhaps by design, this tale having more in common with Ari Aster’s aforementioned feature and his original big boy, Hereditary, in unexpected ways. Tim is reeling from the horrific death scene witnessed, shown to the audience in haunting flashbacks that seem to permeate the here and now. He is fearful that he is losing his grip on reality and sensitive about comparisons to his mother, who did the same. His low self-esteem and loose handle on what is real make him extra susceptible to the predatory horrors around him. Though not a shattering of any molds, it’s interesting to see him in the typically feminine role of the one who is struggling to convince their partner that something isn’t right. This isn’t a simple gender flip but something that adds to his insecurity since he is the one meant to cook and clean and is at the whim of Millie’s willingness to drive him places.

Codependence and all-knowing love can be terrifying, even though they’re things many leap into willingly. The psychic link of Tim and Millie’s bodies becomes a metaphor for body and mind, conscious and subconscious, as the pair struggles to work out how to create distance while their bodies slide autonomically towards each other. It’s in some ways romantic and hopeful, the frenzied mashing up of flesh and bone as a profession of love by two people in an imperfect relationship.

Together might be deserving of many monikers that end with “lite,” but that’s almost what makes it exciting. Especially with Franco and Brie in the lead roles (and their massively lived-in real-life relationship on display), it’s the sort of weird cinema that feels more universally accessible. Its impulse to over-explain and tired trope-ridden finale do not completely undermine the success of this one, and it’s perhaps an exciting gateway to more gross-out horror for the cinema-going masses.