Together

Have you ever felt TOO close to someone?

Body horror, big laughs and mystery combine with gross fascination in TOGETHER.

We meet Tim and Millie at a turning point in their long relationship. After years in the city, Millie (Alison Brie) is excited about their move to the isolated countryside. She confides in friends that it's going to be great for her and Tim (Dave Franco of "Neighbors" and "Now You See Me") to reconnect and rekindle their stale relationship.

After one of the most awkward proposals in screen history, the couple move to a home in the middle of the woods. Millie has accepted a teaching job, where the other faculty ponders why she would accept a role she's obviously far too qualified for.

While Millie navigates the school staff, Tim stays at home, missing his wannabe rock band buddies and spiraling into visions of the gruesome death and existence of his parents.

It would be easy to say that a struggling couple, a house in the wooded country and depression driven visions sound pretty routine for this type of film. Fair statement, but not in the hands of Writer/Director Michael Shanks. I haven't seen any of his other work, but here, he conjures up some very dark parts of the room, fills them with horrific memories and some clever jump scares I never saw coming. Hiding under the sheets from specters is ineffective in Shank's domain.

The couple decide to take a hike behind their property, literally falling into the remnants of something bizarre that I'll leave for you to discover.

Suddenly, their bodies seem to be pulling together like the world's strongest magnets. The film has a blast with this in a much more violent and funny spin on the TV series "Ghosts". If you're a fan of that show, you know it's not easy for them to leave the property. When Millie decides to take a ride into town, Tim's shower becomes a wicked roller coaster.

Fans of John Carpenter's "The Thing" (yes please) will find some nostalgia discovering the fate of a couple of dogs that stumble onto the same territory as Tim and Millie.

Damon Herriman is great as Jamie, a fellow teacher and neighbor of the couple. It's hard to believe this is the same actor who played Charles Manson in both "Mindhunter" and QT's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"!! Talk about range.

I loved the way that Tim's decision to play a gig back in the city turns into a wild series of Rube Goldberg happenings that interlock into an absolutely mad finale.

When that magnetic connection between the couple reaches a fever pitch, the gruesome body horror spews forth. Shanks keeps such a dark sense of humor playing full volume in these scenes that I never looked away, I was laughing too hard at his all too realistic dialogue.

Brie and Franco are a real life married couple since 2017 and that connection adds palpable depth to their performances, bouncing off each other literally and figuratively.

The music score by Cornel Wilczek (Bring Her Back, Talk To Me) is a subversive, sonic onslaught that lulls you into the horror and then punches you in the bloody face.

Filmed in just 21 days, there's a sense of urgency and pull that's palpable from the film's creepy opening, all the way through the final payoff shot. On that payoff, all I could think was "her parents are coming for lunch!" Indeed they are.

The most twisted, gory, funny horror examination of codependency in film history, TOGETHER is mad fun and gets a very solid B.