There is such thing as spending TOO much time with your loved ones…

While Together which is in theatres now, takes the body horror motif to some interesting levels it’s just more peculiar and weird than transformational like it kind of thinks it is.

Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country, abandoning all that is familiar in their lives except each other. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh.

I’ll be the first to admit that there’s something moderately admirable about real life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s willingness to star in weird shit with one another, there’s something about Together which just feels a little forced.

Writer/Director Michael Shanks has crafted a decent enough little potboiler that subverts the some of the body horror themes that we’ve seen in the past and he crafts a strong visual dynamic as these two city dwellers find themselves in the country, of course stumbling into an abandoned satanic church or something it’s lacking something kind of vital.  You really only buy into the story if you are in a couple of have been in a long term relationship, otherwise this is just two dummies doing dumb stuff as they going hiking in the hills behind their house, even in the middle of rainstorm these two had every reason to try and get the hell out of some weird cave.  Single people will think that our lead characters are a little dumb, even though both actors are pretty strong here.

This isn’t the first horror movie that Franco and Brie have done with each other (see 2020’s The Rental) and I’ve got a feeling that it won’t be the last.  Both actors commit to not only the awkward emotionality that this couple finds themselves but the slow burn realization that they are actually being draw to one another thanks to that mysterious force in the woods.  They both have to run the spectrum of emotions and the trust to do that on screen thanks to their real life relationship actually adds to the intensity of the story.

Shanks manages to keep it all together thanks to some very strong visual effects as well along with some moments that will be hard to look away from as they aren’t afraid to maximize the grossness of it all when it best serves the story.

Ultimately what kind of bothered me about all this is how quickly the protagonists were resolved that they weren’t going to stop being bonded together by this nefarious force because they ultimately decided that they both loved each other too much to think about the alternative…

~Barf~.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in true love as much as the next guy but staring down an eternity with my spouse as the Spice Girls “2 Becomes 1” plays on the record player is not how I want to go.

Together does enough to be entertaining as it borrows style and beats from some of the best horror movies in the game but it also shoe horns in some forced relationship moments that people can only be happy “together” that will make you want to barf more than some of the excellent VFX in the film.