Written by Sam Clark

Certificate: 15 

Running time: 102 minutes 

Director: Michael Shanks

Boy, have we been eating good with horror this year. Not only is Bring Her Back currently playing in cinemas, but it has since become one of the best horror films I have ever seen. If that wasn't already good enough to cleanse your horror palette, we are also being treated to Zach Cregger's new film which follows on from Barbarian, one of the best mainstreams horror shockers of recent memory. He is back with Weapons next week which should hopefully deliver the same amounts of shrieks and jumps as last time. What has seemed to be rather lacking in the genre, except for last year's superb The Substance, is another lovely slice of body horror for us to sink our teeth into - it seems that slasher/supernatural is the go-too thing at the moment. We are returned to this arena once again here by Michael Shanks, whose first feature I believe is better Coralie Fargeat's celebrity satire The Substance. 

 Not only have we not seen many body flicks recently but getting a real-life couple to star in it is genius and the first time we have seen this, which means the whole film works so much better. Dave Franco and Alison Brie star as Tim and Millie who move from their apartment in the city when she accepts a teaching job in the countryside. Tim seems rather lost, an aspiring musician who finds himself suddenly dependent on his partner as her career appears to have taken off more than his. One day, the two take a hike near their new home when Tim suddenly falls down into a mysterious cave, the same one that we see in a flashback at the start of the film in which something supernatural may be taking place. Low on water, he gives Millie their only bottle and decides to instead drink from the caves pool, and as anyone with half a brain or has seen any horror film ever knows, when a character eats or drinks something mysterious, it ain't going to end well. 

Image credit: IMDb / Neon

Tim begins to exhibit strange behaviour and symptoms and finds himself completely and compulsively drawn to Millie, but more importantly, a bizarre inability to also be physically separated from her (even after sex...). They start to slowly lose their minds and must figure out why this is happening to prevent this ''curse'' before it is too late. There have been times in the past where some horror films have been released on Valentines Day for couples to go along and enjoy and have a good time at. In a surreal sense, I think Together would have been strangely perfect for this. This is a bonkers love story about the literal need to be attached to one another at all times, and who better to cast than actors who are actually married to each other. Michael Shanks plays around with the body horror genre in a way which I have never seen before, and often with humorous results of second-hand embarrassment. The film is able to capture the appropriate level of lust that the story requires excellently, which again reinforces how having Franco and Brie in this is so smart. Without wishing to go into too much detail, there are moments in which you can tell Together does want to have fun and enjoy itself. 

There is a sex scene between Tim and Millie which is both cringeworthy but intriguingly creative in what it does. The more it unfolds, and things begin to go wrong, I realized how far the film will go and how it is not messing around in the slightest. Despite the fact that the context of this moment and the environment in which it takes place in doesn't quite work for me, I couldn't help but admire the fact it went down this avenue and the fact that overall, the film does not seem to be short on ideas. This is just one of many moments in which you do wince at what is going on and it's safe to say most of the film got under my skin (pun intended). 

Image credit: IMDb / Neon

But in the great pantheon of body horror history, this has one of the best understandings of how to do it I have ever seen, made even more impressive by the fact this a debut film, Shanks makes it appear as though he has had decades worth of experience. Where Together is elevated above the rest for me is that this is a superbly crunchy film. It contorts itself in every imaginable way and gives us set pieces that feel refreshingly new but also enjoyably crazy and creative. It has it's fair share of practical effects as well as CGI, although I confess that I was genuinely more impressed by the CGI as it not only proves to be more reliant on that, but managed to look pretty good as well.  

Not only does it thankfully deliver on that front, but it proves to be jumpier than I had expected with one particularly well done sequence which caused half of the audience to jump out of their seats. It goes without saying that Franco and Brie's chemistry works an absolute treat and demonstrates just how well couples can work with each other on screen; just look at John Krasinski and Emily Blunt in the Quiet Place films. When you have a film and plot about love and family (even if it is horror), I'm surprised other films haven't taken this initiative as the end result is so much better. Together is a great idea on paper, and thankfully the film proves to be just that on screen. Entertainingly ridiculous fun.   

In cinemas from the 15th of August