TOGETHER Sticks With You

TOGETHER (Blu-ray)

2025 / 102 min

Neon

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

2025 has been a pretty damn good year for horror. Not just good horror, but original horror made by directors who appear to have more on their minds than just cheap thrills. Even Final Destination: Bloodlines reflected a lot more creativity than was probably required. 

Michael Shanks’ feature debut, Together, is another example. On the heels of last year’s The Substance comes another vivid foray into body horror. While it never reaches the same gruesome heights (or depths, depending on one’s tolerance for this sort of thing), the film boasts a bizarre premise, convincing performances and smart writing that also explores the complexities of modern relationships…especially troubled ones. And of course, it features plenty of butt-puckering visual nastiness.

Real life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco play Millie and Tim. Outwardly congenial, they are experiencing something of a relationship crisis. When she takes a teaching job in a small town, they move from the city into a remote old house. While walking in the woods, they become trapped overnight in a cave, where Tim drinks some of the water. After emerging, Tim finds himself increasingly drawn to her…physically, as depicted through progressively unnerving scenes in which they’re literally stuck together. 

"We'll be okay. I brought fire."

It turns out the town and surrounding woods have a dark past, which is directly related to another couple that previous went missing and were never found, which I won’t spoil with elaboration. However, it does explain why (and how) Millie and Tim become literally unable to stay apart (rendered by wonderfully icky make-up effects). The plot is actually pretty simple, but made a little more complex through the couple’s growing estrangement, sometimes exacerbated by their dire predicament.

The film culminates with a wild finale that, considering the protagonists’ relationship, seems inevitable, but comes as sort of a surprise anyway. I guess whether or not it’s a happy ending depends on the viewer’s investment in these characters, though it sure is a haunting one. In a year that’s given us a lot of great, original horror, I wouldn’t rank Together up there with Weapons, Bring Her Back or Sinners, but it’s well worth seeing…probably more than once.

EXTRA KIBBLES

INTERVIEWS  - Individual interviews with writer/director Michael Shanks and Alison Brie & Dave Franco.

ALISON BRIE & DAVE FRANCO’S CODEPENDENCY TEST - The two stars take a quiz together.

TRAILERS