When Tim and Millie move from the big city to the American wilderness, their lasting relationship is already on the rocks. Tim, a struggling musician, refuses to let go of his adolescent dreams of stardom, while Millie clings tightly to the ghost of the romance they once shared. But when they stumble upon an eerie cave on a woodland hike, Tim drinks from a mysterious spring that sparks suffocating nightmares, animalistic urges, and an inability to be physically apart.
Reminiscent of pioneering icons such as The Fly and The Thing, and 21st Century cult classics like The Substance, Together is body horror at its purest and most violating. But what separates it from many of its peers is the fact that its terror doesn’t merely embed the flesh — it creeps into the heart as well.
The horror of codependency hits unlike any other. And Dave Franco and Alison Brie (a real-life couple) as Tim and Millie brilliantly capture how the living can experience grief for their past selves, individually and collectively, and haunt one another like ghosts. In cinema, A Ghost Story perhaps does this best, while Pine (Francine Toon) and The Glass Hotel (Emily St-John Mandel) are two of the finest examples in literature. Here, Franco and Brie attack the theme with a rawness and intimacy which feels both fictional and painfully familiar.
Arguably, the film’s greatest strength is its moments of unapologetic, well-placed humour that show a self-awareness absent in much of modern horror. Franco, Brie and director Michael Shanks know their narrative has darkly comedic undertones, and they don’t shy away from it — a quality that feels equal parts nostalgic and refreshing as they gleefully push tired relationship dynamics to grotesque, unchartered extremes.
At its core, Together is a twisted love story that masterfully subverts emotional and physical, and literal and metaphorical, connection. Its protagonists are pulled apart, deformed, deconstructed, only to be brought romantically closer together. There are scenes, particularly its wonderfully monstrous crescendo, that will stick with you for days.
DISTRIBUTOR
Entertainment
DIRECTOR
Michael Shanks
SCREENPLAY
Michael Shanks
CAST
Alison Brie
Dave Franco
Damon Herriman
UK CINEMA
15 August 2025
