{"id":12701,"date":"2025-08-02T17:07:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T21:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12701"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:25:17","slug":"together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/08\/02\/together\/","title":{"rendered":"Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Together<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violent\/disturbing content, sexual content, graphic nudity, language, brief drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Shanks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Shanks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Cornel Wilczek\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Germain McMicking\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 30, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman, Mia Morrissey.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s some debate as to whether Together<\/strong> is elevated horror or not. As I\u2019m sure you already know, EH is what happens when some young filmmaker makes a horror movie whose description typically includes the phrase, \u201cbut it\u2019s really about\u201d. That could apply to Together<\/strong>. Ostensibly, it\u2019s about a young couple who experience strange side effects after drinking water from a questionable source. BUT it\u2019s really about<\/em> the nature of relationships and co-dependency. It doesn\u2019t paint a pretty picture. It explores the fears inherent in a long-term relationship- namely, love dying and the union ending- in a way that\u2019s both sharply perceptive and gruesome.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I suppose Together<\/strong> is EH the same way many of David Cronenberg\u2019s films are- e.g. The Brood, Videodrome and Dead Ringers. In fact, one can see the Canadian filmmaker\u2019s influences all over Together<\/strong>, a body horror movie with its fair share of ick. You can also hear echoes of John Carpenter (The Thing) throughout with its palpable feeling of dread. It would appear that writer-director Michael Shanks did his homework for his feature film debut.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Millie (Brie, Promising Young Woman) and Tim (Franco, Now You See Me) are at that point in their long-term relationship where they\u2019ve lost their identities. It\u2019s always \u201cus\u201d and \u201cwe\u201d. They\u2019re always together. HOWEVER, it\u2019s not an equal partnership. Millie is clearly in command of this union. She\u2019s the one who proposes to Tim (in front of their friends) who\u2019s too stunned to answer. His non-action, typical of Tim, only adds to the tension already simmering between them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The proposal occurs at a going-away party as Millie and Tim prepare to give up city life and move to the sticks to start a new life. He\u2019s not 100% on board with the idea, but goes along with it just like he does everything else. Tim is the very definition of passive. Millie, an elementary school teacher, has a job waiting for her. Tim, an aspiring (and unemployed) musician, has no prospects. At 35, he still believes he can make it big someday even though it\u2019s obvious to everybody else that the hoped-for big break is just a pipe dream. The move places him even farther away from all potential gigs and achieving said pipe dream.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One day, the couple decides to go for a hike in the woods near their home. Predictably, they run into a storm and get lost. They fall into a hidden inground cave while in a panic. It\u2019s a creepy place, but they have no choice but to shelter in place until the morning. Tim gets thirsty and drinks from a pool of water in the cave. That\u2019s when things get weird. Tim, already slightly unstable, starts having episodes whenever he\u2019s not in close proximity to Millie. He becomes irresistibly attracted to her. At one point, they have sex in a bathroom stall at her school and it becomes a sticky situation but not in the way you\u2019re probably thinking.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t say Together<\/strong> is perfect, but it works as both gross body horror and a metaphor. The latter is made even more effective by the strong chemistry between the two leads, married in real life as well as reel life. Their dialogue has an authentic, lived-in vibe to it. They sound like a real couple going through the usual couple BS- i.e. he\u2019s too needy, she needs her space.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The actors\u2019 individual performances are right on-point as well. Franco turns in his most nuanced performance to date as Tim, a man-child dependent on his partner for pretty much everything. He doesn\u2019t even have a driver\u2019s license so Millie has to drive him everywhere like she\u2019s the mother of a young teen. Franco effortlessly blends this dependency with an increasingly deteriorating mental state, possibly something he inherited from an unstable parent. Brie delivers an equally convincing performance as the one in charge of the relationship. Millie isn\u2019t a control freak, but she definitely has the upper hand. Her fear as she starts to lose control feels real.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The effects in Together<\/strong>, mostly practical with only a bit of CGI, are nicely icky. The transformation of the central relationship becomes physical in ways you could never imagine. I\u2019m not going to describe any of it; it would spoil the shock of witnessing it for yourself. I\u2019ll only say it\u2019s definitely not for the squeamish. I\u2019ll also say that Together<\/strong> is absolutely NOT a date movie no matter how long you\u2019ve been dating.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The problem with elevated horror movies is their inflated sense of self-importance. They tend to be rather pretentious (e.g. Midsommar). Thankfully, I didn\u2019t see so much of that in Together<\/strong>. Yes, it\u2019s fully aware that it\u2019s making a statement, but Shanks doesn\u2019t rub it in the viewers\u2019 faces. Sadly, he missteps in another area. Given the film\u2019s far out premise, he should have gone all-out bonkers. Unfortunately, he\u2019s too timid to go there completely. It feels like he holds back just as things get crazy. I wish he showed some of the same fearlessness as Cronenberg. He went there and it resulted in some unforgettable movies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d like to close on a humorous note if I may. It\u2019s in reference to a particular soundtrack choice. It\u2019s the first time in my life that I heard a Spice Girls song and didn\u2019t want to scream in agony. It\u2019s put to good use, but still.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Together (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Neon\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violent\/disturbing content, sexual content, graphic nudity, language, brief drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Shanks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Shanks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Cornel Wilczek\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Germain McMicking\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 30, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman, Mia Morrissey. Rating: *** \u00a0There\u2019s some debate as to whether Together is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Together-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12705,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12701\/revisions\/12705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}