‘Together’ Review: A Queasy, Clever Twist on Love and Body Horror

Michael Shanks’ Together is a body-horror romance that is as sticky as it is sly. Anchored by Alison Brie and Dave Franco, the film has some sharp performances, a confident tone, and a willingness to get weird. It’s not flawless—occasional dodgy CGI briefly pulls you out—but when the film leans into its queasy concept, it’s a treat and it’s not afraid to get under your skin, literally.

The premise is simple but loaded: Millie (Brie) and Tim (Franco) are long-term partners, who have moved to a small town for Millie’s new teaching job. Tim is tagging along for her but he’s still clinging to the idea of being a musician, but the odds aren’t in his favor. He’s aging out of the scene, and the trauma of losing his parents still casts a long shadow. The move feels like a reset…It’s not.

A brief, unsettling prologue shows us a cave, some very questionable water, and a hint of something rotten. It’s a warning, but one that Millie and Tim are oblivious to—until they aren’t. As life in their picturesque new home soon takes a turn.

During a hike the pair accidently stubble across said cave, where an accident traps them overnight and thirst drives Tim to drink from a stagnant pool. By morning, their legs are oddly fused—“mildew,” Tim jokes—and once free, his desire for distance vanishes, replaced by an intense, unnerving, even painful need to stay close.

Michael Shanks doesn’t try to disguise where things are headed. The fun lies in how he gets there. The couple’s connection begins as clingy affection, then morphs into something invasive, toxic, and impossible to escape. Franco shifts Tim from affable underachiever to a bit of pathetic dependent with unnerving ease, while Brie gives Millie a growing urgency, fighting to keep her own identity intact.

Together is a film about codependency taken to its most literal, grotesque extreme and it works.

Visually, Together is a mixed bag. The practical effects are satisfying, but the CGI occasionally falters. A few moments look rough around the edges, pulling you out of the experience. Still, the film’s commitment to its gross-out premise is admirable. It isn’t aiming for elegance—it’s aiming to stick in your mind. And the bathroom sex scene will do exactly that… though you’ll probably wish it didn’t.

Together is a film about codependency taken to its most literal, grotesque extreme and it works. It helps that Shanks avoids excessive jump scares, instead letting the discomfort build, resulting in a story that’s as much about relationship suffocation as it is about mutated flesh.

In the crowded horror landscape, Together distinguishes itself by knowing exactly what it wants to be—a genre cocktail of romance, gross-out thrills, and sly humor, stirred with just enough sincerity to keep you invested. It’s messy in places, sure, but messiness feels almost fitting here. After all, relationships rarely end neatly.

Together hits UK cinemas this Friday, August 15, and is already playing in theaters across the US.

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