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Horror Beat: TOGETHER successfully injects body horror into the date movie formula

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Horror has been responsible for more first dates and, if you’re lucky, more first kisses than any other genre around (and that’s including romantic comedies). Fear is a great attractor, which is why scary movies make people inch closer together to get through the jump scares or the gross-out moments. Not every horror movie can pull this off, though. French New Extremity and classic Lucio Fulci giallos aren’t exactly date-friendly, unless both parties are in the mood for torture porn and gratuitous nudity (which is a great time at the movie for a lot of people).

Traditionally, fun is the goal with a horror date movie. A light mystery, horny teens getting stabbed at a steady rate, and the promise of some kind of resolution where the evil entity gets defeated is usually a recipe for success. Michael Shanks’s Together is none of these things, and yet it manages to be one of the best horror date movies in quite some time. And it’s all because it never forgets to be fun.

Together follows a couple, Tim and Millie (played by Dave Franco and Alison Brie respectively), that moves to the countryside for what seems like a soft reset. Millie has a new teaching job lined up there. Tim, on the other hand, is struggling to get his musician dreams off the ground. As a result, Tim is starting to rethink his relationship and whether his life has become irreversibly intertwined with Millie’s.

In the process of moving to their new home, the couple decide on exploring the woods around the house. In classic horror fashion, they stumble into a strange sunken area that looks like nature itself was trying to keep hidden from the outside world only to find a dark pool of water that no one in their right mind would drink from. Tim, of course, drinks from it. From then on, his body becomes a sort of magnet that violently pushes him to be in constant physical touch with Millie. The flesh, it seems, wants what it wants.

Shanks finds great opportunities to exploit the concept, leading to a few sequences that allow for some gruesome and gross-out body horror that’ll make people out on their first dates dig their faces into the person next to them to avoid the nastier stuff. One particular sequence puts Tim and Millie in a bathroom stall for a bit of carnal fun. It’s the perfect setup for body horror and Shanks takes full advantage of it for one of the movie’s most shock-inducing moments.

Surprisingly, one of the best scenes doesn’t feature skin grafting together, or getting ripped apart. It sees Tim taking a shower as Millie drives away to continue on with her day. Here it’s revealed that the force that’s taken over their relationship doesn’t want them to be physically separated. As Millie drives further away, Tim’s body gets whipped around the shower in her general direction. At one point it looks like he’s about to be crushed into the wall in a brutally agonizing way.

It’s effective because it communicates the movie’s message well without feeling the need to have some character blurt out the literal meaning of it. Franco and Brie’s chemistry makes these scenes truly sing. The real-life married couple play up the subtleties of two people being in a quietly tense relationship that looks unshakable at times and uncomfortably fragile at others. Brie in particular puts on an impressive display of emotions that go from worry to elation to anger and to resolve organically, giving them each the time to breathe and settle.

Franco, the source of the relationship’s instability (it could be argued), does an outstanding job of leading with a sense of indecision and commitment anxiety, to the point he becomes the story’s biggest source of dread and tension. His ability to live in that in-between headspace where things can turn blissful or heartbreaking at a moment’s notice helps elevate the couple’s interaction. His indecision is as terrifying as the thing that’s forcing them be physically on top of each other at all times.

As is the case with a lot of the more recent horror movies, Together anchors itself on a single metaphor and makes little room for anything else. This time around it’s about the fear of losing once’s identity in a relationship. And that’s it. There are a few small branches of meaning in there, but very little else is explored. As well-crafted as the movie is, this type of metaphor-first storytelling leads to what is now a common problem in horror: the ending becomes the weakest part of the package.

Together’s closing minutes are dedicated to making sure audiences get the message as bluntly as possible. It hammers through, leaving very little left to talk about after it’s all said and done. It also leads to a final shot that ended up being sillier than what it was going for. It just deflates a bit of the amazing horror that was established leading up to it. Once the credits roll, there’s not much left to talk about or discuss with your date. Just remember not to let your identity get lost in a relationship on the way out.

Regardless, Shanks managed to build an inventive, fun, and creepy experience that will fully entertain for the duration of the film. It’s a fast and tense affair that warns both new and veteran couples on the dangers of turning their significant others into the entirety of their existence. You’ll still kiss your date by the end of the night, maybe even take it further, but you’ll be feeling each other out to make sure your body parts all still belong to you in the process.

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