After Coralie Fargeat’s visceral The Substance, a film about ageism and beauty standards, made a splash in Cannes last year and received multiple Oscar nominations, socially and politically conscious body horror movies with a dark sense of humour became more noticeable. Sundance features two such examples this year: Emilie Blichfeldt’s Ugly Stepsister, and Michael Shanks’s a little less refined Together. At the core of the latter lies a disturbing scenario some might have witnessed among their own friends: two people in love fuse into one person. When it happens to superstars, the tabloids call it “Bennifer” or “Brangelina”. First-time directors Shanks takes the premise to a whole new level.
Dave Franco and Alison Brie play Tim and Millie, respectively. She is a schoolteacher eager to settle down into small-town life. He is a failed musician who still believes he can make it big. Their antithetical ideas of a happy shared life – middle-class comfort vs rockstar life on the road – make them embarrassingly ill-suited for each other. All their friends see the gap, but the two protagonists don’t. So they “take the plunge”, as their final Facebook post says, in a pleasant rural era.
A first foreshadowing of the titular theme of inseparable ties is the rotting corpse of a “rat-king”. If you wonder what that is and want nightmare fuel, read up on how rats can can become inseparable when their tails entangle. This is a preview for what lies in store for the main characters. Tim’s unpleasant rodent find in their new home hints to the domestic discordance at the heart of the horror. With an edge of caustic humour, the plot reveals their relationship as highly dysfunctional. Their co-dependency turns frighteningly physical after a hike leads them to a dilapidated church.
This sinister place was once home to a New Age cult, which offered Plato’s story of conjoined creatures a twisted reinterpretation. The powers residing in the building were just waiting for the couple to arrive, it seems. Tim and Millie they are irresistibly drawn to one another, with violent physical contortions. Letting go of their respective partner becomes impossible as their skin and bone fuse. Simple special effects cater for the fun, in this organic allegory for losing yourself in another person. And if that doesn’t sound scary enough, just imagine it all laced with a Spice Girls tune.
Brie and Franco’s real-life relationship gives the scenario an ironic metatextual touch. Their natural chemistry keeps the sarcastic premise from getting too ridiculous. Behind the supernatural elements lies an all-too-common social pressure into monogamy and matrimony. Since this ancient ideal of togetherness is still idolised by society, it makes sense to portray it as an actual religion. Even the Bible proposes that “two shall become one flesh”. Soon it takes an electric knife for the protagonists to keep their personal space. The directing lacks subtlety and refinement, but still has an enjoyable disrespect for traditionalism.
Together just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
