2024 was probably the best year for horror films ever from my perspective.  Arguably, horror movies saved the theaters/box office last year. This year, things are vastly different. The horror films haven’t been as good or as prevalent. The ones that have come out are either requels or not that interesting. I can’t say that about Together. It’s one of the most original horror movies I’ve seen in recent years. It once again uses something fans have seen before but puts a new spin on it we haven’t seen. I’m glad that I finally got to see something original and new that was good. I think horror fans will as well.

Tim (Dave Franco), a struggling musician, and Millie (Alison Brie), a teacher, are a couple who are moving from New York City to upstate New York. They seem to be a happy couple, but after they go for a walk in the woods and fall into a hole in the ground, things start to change. Francio’s character starts to have a weird attraction to the Brie character and not in a normal way. When she befriends  another teacher at the school she works at, Jamie (Damon Harriman), things start to get much weirder than they were earlier on in the film. By the end of the movie, things eventually get really crazy.

Michael Shanks, the writer/director, used some tropes of horror movies past to help get his story across. There are numerous dream sequences that are a bit frightening to watch, but the main story has a lot of cringeworthy scenes as well. The two main characters are drawn to each other in more than a sexual way even though there is one sex scene in the film that is quite painful to watch. When the plot asks for things to stick “Together” they literally stick together, and it’s not always easy to watch. I was covering my face on more than one instance with all the horrific sequences. Fans of body horror are going to love what Shanks did here.

With that being said, the makeup in this film is pretty disgusting. There is more than one scene that I was grossed out at. The makeup is first rate, though, and rivals that of The Substance from last year. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was up for the best hairstyling and makeup at the Academy Awards next year. That being said, Shanks did a great job of combining practical makeup with visual effects. The combination of the two was pretty astounding to watch. Even though I knew some of these scenes were CGI, I was still freaked out by them. Once again, horror filmmakers raise the bar in terms of what can be done in a horror film. This was some crazy looking stuff.

Franco and Brie are two good actors who’ve done solid work in their careers. Franco has done some comedies and some television work in his career thus far, and Brie has had a similar trajectory in her career doing some streaming shows like Glow and comedies as well. The most realistic role they’ve probably played is boyfriend/ girlfriend in this movie. Considering they are actual husband and wife. It probably wasn’t much of a stretch to do the romantic scenes or the arguing scenes either. As a real couple, this was the perfect film for them so they could see the world together. I instantly saw the chemistry between the pair. That’s always great in a movie that deals with some sense of romantic relationships. I was drawn to them in this film.

There is mainly one supporting character in this movie unless you count the beginning sequence, which was a party, and the end where two people show up on screen. That character is played by the aforementioned Damon Harriman. As soon as I saw him on screen, I knew he was going to be a key player in the story. He seems all nice and friendly at first, but if you’ve seen him in other films or television series, you know he always plays a bad guy. No spoilers here on what his motivations are, but I loved seeing him pop up. He’s not used as much in films as he is in television shows, but I knew he was up to no good.

Body horror is a difficult trope to master within the horror genre. Making the audience believe what you’re trying to achieve is Paramount. There are clues to various things within the movie. These clues are left intentionally for viewers to pick up on. The main twist of the film would be hard for anyone to believe, let alone achieve within the context of the story being told. Shanks achieves this quite easy as far as I’m concerned. He puts the breadcrumbs out there and waits for the little mouse, us, to pick them up and eat them. He brilliantly tells this story in a subtle way. I was completely in on everything he was doing. This is a master craftsman at work. I was completely invested in this movie from beginning to end. 

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen