Together (Trailer Review)

Real-life married power couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie have to literally stick together in Michael Shanks' upcoming directorial debut, concisely titled Together, a supernatural body horror film that aims to associate the toxicity of codependent relationships with the grotesquerie of bodily mutations. As of my review for the full (albeit admirably enigmatic and restrained) trailer, Together boasts a whopping 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 51 reviews. While that score is more than likely to drop once the movie is showcased to a wider variety of critics, many of whom will not have a soft spot for the body horror subgenre and are therefore likely to be turned off by the extreme displays of gore and fanciful plotting that appear prominent here, it's still likely to wind up somewhere in the high 80s or low 90s. And because RT has recently committed the bafflingly misguided decision to remove their average rating feature without notice, there's currently no quality score for Together. However, with a 100% from this many critics, it would likely fall within the 4-star parameter (anywhere from a 7.5-8.5/10).

 

This doesn't represent the first cinematic collaboration between Franco and Brie. Like Rob and Sheri Moon Zombie and Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel, they're a husband-wife team who appear to have found a niche working in the horror genre. In 2017, they co-starred (as a couple, of course) in the stranger-than-fiction based-on-a-true-story comedy, The Disaster Artist, directed by Dave's older brother, James, making it something of a family affair. Three years later, Dave directed his wife in his own directorial debut, The Rental, a subtly subversive spin on the mad slasher genre that heralded Franco as an intriguing new voice in horror. Now, the talented lovers have embarked on what is guaranteed to be their most intimate partnership to date, both in the psychological and especially the physical sense.

Franco and Brie co-star as married couple Tim and Millie, who are making a move to the countryside after the latter receives a new teaching job. It's safe to assume that, given her more stable occupation, Millie is the one bringing home the bacon, while Tim, a musician, is struggling to attain success with his band. (As a budding film critic who wants to do nothing else work-wise, I can empathize easily.) Due in no small part to their career differences and the financial insecurities that emanate from them, Millie and Tim have reached a standstill in their relationship. As the two stand across a dimly illuminated hallway from each other, preparing to retire in separate bedrooms (an automatic red flag for any couple), Tim offers a weakly desperate goodnight "I love you," to which Millie hesitates before replying, "K," in a depressed whisper and shutting her door. Millie expresses her concerns about her and Tim's gradually deteriorating marriage to a therapist played by Damon Herriman (not a good sign considering this man has played real-life cult leader, white supremacist, and murderer Charles Manson in two productions: Quentin Tarantino's revisionist western comedy, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and the Netflix psychological crime thriller series, Mindhunter), who advises her to trust in the bond she and Tim have developed over the years. One sunny day, while the two go out for a walk, they fall into and become trapped in a cave. After they manage to climb their way out days later, they gradually realize they've picked up a mysterious curse that will test their love for one another -- and their tolerance for extreme bodily harm. 

The trailer for Together avoids the common pitfall of oversharing. Very little plot information is parceled, and the most gruesome imagery is admirably withheld. The first tantalizing taste of the body horrors to follow is of Millie and Tim making out passionately, trying to reignite the spark in their dwindling marriage. Their bottom lips become glued together, and when Millie pulls hers free, she lets out a pained scream that's wisely silenced before cutting away. In the next instance, Millie and Tim are lying beside each other in bed. She asks him to roll over because he's on her hair. Tim neither moves nor responds. Millie turns around and puts the lamp on, horrified by what she sees. Once again, we cut away, but our mind tells us that most likely his head or mouth is attached to her hair. The most striking set piece of the trailer (and possibly the movie as a whole) finds Tim standing semi-conscious in the shower while Millie goes out for a drive. Once she leaves the driveway, Tim's body is consequently smashed against the shower walls, tossed around like a ragdoll. Whatever this curse is, it wants to punish Millie and Tim whenever they dare to separate. God help them if they're planning on divorcing. So maybe, in its own sadistic, agonizing way, this curse is trying to help Millie and Tim stay together, only it's taking that a little too physically literally. 

As seems to be a trend in modern horror, a cult appears to be at the forefront of the horrors befalling our protagonists. Millie stumbles across footage on her TV of a gathering of people, filmed in murky night-vision green, in the cave where she and Tim were trapped. It wouldn't be a surprise to learn that her therapist is the leader of the cult. As good a job as this trailer does of concealing crucial narrative information and violent imagery, it essentially incriminates Herriman's character from the get-go, with his seemingly helpful lines delivered in an ominous tone of phony tenderness. "Well, you know, complacency can sometimes simply be... harmony," he informs Millie. "You know, this can be the beginning of something wonderful." Yeah, don't even try telling me that's a coincidence. Clearly he's orchestrating whatever's happening to his patient and her husband. If Ann Dowd's deceptive involvement in Hereditary was fairly obvious from the trailer, Together's doesn't even try to conceal Herriman's true identity and motivation. 

To juxtapose the gruesome horrors of Tim and Millie's situation with a thematically germane undercurrent of grim humor, The Turtles' "Happy Together" plays somewhat intrusively over the entire trailer. This tactic has become commonplace in trailers, and while I recognize the distributor's intent, I don't particularly appreciate simultaneously listening to a cheerful, old-timey song and watching a series of fast-paced horrifying images of bodies being dragged and skin being ripped apart. It's jarring, but not in the compelling way that's intended. 

There's also a mysterious image of two dogs staring motionlessly at each other. Here we have another horror movie that dares to inflict harm on animals, dogs being the typical recipient, but it's safe to assume their cause of death will be unlike any other. We see, in close-up, the eyelashes of Tim and Millie slowly attaching themselves, likely during the final stage of their transformation. We can only hope one of them thinks of a way out at the last second, lest their bodies merge into one for the rest of eternity. At the end of the trailer, Millie and Tim are tethered to each other on a chair. Millie, maintaining an attitude of comforting calmness, pours some whisky down her husband's throat "for the pain" before retrieving a drill, hinting at the undertone of macabre humor that will course through Together's veins. The money shot features a lot of screaming but keeps the penetration out of the frame.

At just under two and a half minutes, but moving at a breakneck speed, the trailer for Together doesn't paint a full enough picture to clue me in on what my reaction will be to the finished product, but as a veteran enthusiast of horror in all its various flavors, I'm intrigued by Shanks' promised amalgamation of sobering relationship drama and cringe-inducing body horror. While I'm not familiar with Shanks due to this being his first endeavor into the world of filmmaking, knowing that a duo as talented as Franco and Brie are at the forefront in front of the camera inspires instant hope. Over the last several years, fresh filmmaking talents have made a name for themselves in the horror sphere by bringing something distinctive to the table, and I sincerely hope that Shanks is getting ready to add his name to that prestigious list. 

Having debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, Together will conjoin itself to the United States on July 30th. In the meantime, check out the trailer below... if you've got the stomach for it.