“Together” combines the awkward experience of being in the room as a couple fights in front of you with a bold body horror premise that teeters just on the edge of being too cute by half. It starts out as if it’s riffing on the classic “thing” before settling into something closer to nightmarish slapstick comedy – like the less creative but still very committed reverse of “The subject“With lots of ridiculous scenarios. Unfortunately, it never quite finds a consistently terrifying, let alone thought-provoking, edge to use to cut deeper.
The film has a charming cast of the real life husband and wife duo Dave Franco and Alison Brie as well as a more chaotic comedy-horror sensibility at its strongest. When the film itself threatens to fall apart – including as it almost subverts the whole thing in the end – the parts that stick with you come from the meaty effects and the crushing sounds derived from the body horror.
This ensures that “together” while it pales in comparison to other more inventive body horrorcan use this command of craft to keep you close even if it also does a lot to make you want to look away. If you keep watching, you’ll see a familiar movie about the codependency that can threaten to end relationships as the story follows an unsuspecting couple who discover something underground outside their remote home that will forever change their lives, their body chemistry, and the fragile relationship they have built together. Which form, or forms, it takes best to watch so as not to spoil any of the gratifying gore it creates. What can be said is that the film is often playful yet fleeting in general.
“Tilsums” premiered Sunday at Sundance, and even though it isn’t The scariest film at the festivalIt still finds plenty of gory fun in how it plays out with the premise of a couple finding themselves drawn to each other in ways they’ve never experienced before. The emotional drive involves Millie (Brie) trying to get through to her deadbeat boyfriend Tim (Franco) and work things out after their relationship has essentially stalled. This, and a new teaching job for her, is the whole reason they’re moving, but it’s far less interesting than how writer/director Michael Shanks uses the spun story to throw the couple around in any way they can in their new home. It’s about seeing how far he takes it and what joy it is when he gives himself space to let loose.
This is first felt via a cleverly constructed and shattering sequence in a shower that crosses between the two. It reveals how their movements are manipulated by something other than their consciousness. From there, “Together” plays like a horror rollercoaster where the scenes of the pair trying to work together to fight what’s taking them over are exciting and the in-between bits much less so. Thankfully, even when the sudden exposition about past trauma lands clumsily, the rest of the film remains light on its feet and thoroughly funny as we observe the pair tormented by anything tugging at their corporeal forms.
“Together” is best when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The highlight is the horror shenanigans rather than the relationship story which, if you think about it even a little, starts to feel half-baked and contradictory in the closing stretch.
It can be generously said that Shanks may be trying to express how many monogamous relationships have some degree of codependency at their core and that intimacy requires compassionate compromise that can lead to you losing some of your independence.
All the glorious elements are fantastic, with the moments where everything is turned up to 11 cutting to the bone, although it’s hard to shake how little it leaves a mark elsewhere. “Together” may tear the body apart in a glorious way, but its ideas never cut to the soul.
“Together” is a selling title at Sundance.
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