Together is the kind of movie I always want to have on my radar: a non-IP horror movie with a strong hook of a premise that has some decent money behind it. A couple starts fusing together into a single fleshy entity? Sign me up! That kind of surreal body horror idea is always going to pop me.
However, there is a pervasive thought I’m experiencing a lot with horror movies of late and Together fell into this category: “This would work better as a short film or episode of an anthology.” Now, considering some controversy surrounding Together and a legal case involving allegations of plagiarism from a short film, that thought is an even darker cloud for this particular movie. That said, I don’t have a short film or episode to review. I have a full feature-length story.
And as far as that goes for Together? Let’s see if we can pry these congealed thoughts apart into something separate.
A Straightforward (If Simplistic) Story
Together is the feature writing and directing debut for filmmaker Michael Shanks. As such, I want to give him a lot of slack as a writer. The script for Together is by no means bad. Instead, it’s mostly simple and well-worn tropes that don’t leave much to the imagination. Granted, Shanks as a director is much more adept at nailing the horror of it all than the particular absurdity that comes along with an idea like this.
As it lays, Together doesn’t offer much surprising beyond the shock of its selling point. Events play out at a decent pace and the rhythm of everything is solid, but to such a degree that it starts to come off as coldly mechanical by the time the final act is promising true chaos. For as bonkers as the idea is, the story’s final big beats don’t take the stakes to unexpected heights. It’s like watching a wind-up toy dutifully march its way across a table where you know it’s going to fall off the edge. It’s not traversing a creative obstacle course or going to surprise you by rocketing into the living room with a hidden jetpack. You set that toy up to fall off an edge along a straight path. That’s the story of Together.
Solid Horror, Misfire Comedy
Like I mentioned, Michael Shanks does an impressive job with the horror side of Together. There are a few knockout nightmare sequences that I won’t be forgetting any time soon, and anytime the movie wants to go for the throat, it succeeds. The issue comes with this attempting levels of comedy. Dave Franco and Alison Brie are storied comedic talents, so it stands to reason that I don’t blame them for not being able to sell the sense of humor from the page. Outside of a single shot whose concept alone is inescapably funny, I just don’t think the script or the filmmaking are ever on the right wavelength for comedy. The attempts are there and clear — heck, the very premise alone is ripe for jokes — but nothing outside of that one shot ever got a laugh out of me.
The majority of this review is going to make it seem like I hated Together. I didn’t! In fact, it made my list of Notable Cinema but is on the lower end of the ranking. This is a solid first feature that shows real promise from a director, and it will probably enrapture twisted viewers who haven’t been exposed to so many stories like this. In my book, this is a fine little diddy that I wish had more surprises in store.
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