Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Together: Dave Franco and Alison Brie Deliver a Thrilling Mix of Laughter and Unease in This Must-See Horror-Comedy!

Horror-comedy is one of the most delicate genres to pull off in cinema. Obviously, you want it to be funny, but if you go too ridiculous, the movie won’t be scary at all. Well, Michael Shanks’s feature debut, Together, which stars husband-and-wife duo Alison Brie and Dave Franco, pulls off the genre more successfully than most have in recent memory. Sometimes, when it comes to horror movies, it’s best to know as little as possible going in, and that is the approach this review of Together will take. We will not tell you the premise of this horror-comedy film, but what we will say is that it’s an ingenious body horror concept that comes from a refreshingly blunt perspective that is also willing to mock itself.

Like many satirical body horror movies, the metaphor behind Together isn’t particularly deep. Even look at Best Picture nominee The Substance—its themes and commentary are skin-deep, and that’s on purpose. But Shanks still manages to ask some interesting questions, challenging the audience to think about their own relationships and behaviors that might seem innocent but are, in reality, incredibly toxic.

What makes Together such a memorable entry into the horror-comedy genre is that it manages to be genuinely scary. Shanks does not often prioritize jump scares in the film, but when he does, they are incredibly effective in their delivery, making the audience jump then recoil with immediate laughter. And as with any great body horror movie, there are some moments that will make viewers’ skin crawl, and Shanks finds some creative and original ways to make that happen.

Indeed, all of these twisted ideas are brought to life by very impressive effects work. There’s a lot of practical stuff happening with prosthetics throughout, but even when the film has to use CGI for the ideas that simply wouldn’t be feasible in camera, it still looks surprisingly strong. The set design does feel somewhat generic, recycling ideas like spooky caves and ambiguously pagan iconography, but the movie more than makes up for this with the creativity in its body horror elements.

These scenes also carry with them an absolutely twisted sense of humor. At several points in the film, you may wonder whether it is going to take it there, and reader… it absolutely does. One scene, in particular, feels like the natural place where this story should head, and it elicited equal reactions of riotous laughter and disturbed groans from the Sundance audience. Another big part of what makes Together so effective is that it invests the audience emotionally in the central relationship.

In the first act, it seems like the conflict is going to be somewhat superficial—a career-driven woman and her less-driven semi-professional musician boyfriend. However, the layers of their relationship become much more complicated over the second and third acts, which allows the movie to resonate much more deeply. Of course, part of this delicate tonal balance is thanks to the performances of the film’s leading duo, Alison Brie and Dave Franco.

Frankly, it feels like this movie would not work without a real-life couple at the center of it, and the fact that both Brie and Franco are comedians allows it to work even better. They have an undeniable chemistry, but their relationship also feels lived-in because it actually is. This makes the characters feel like they are genuinely in love, even during the more contentious moments, which is the dynamic that was essential for this premise to work.

Together is an obvious movie, but the way in which it manages to pull off the delicate balance between comedy and horror is nothing short of impressive. It’s the type of horror film that is creative, thoughtful, and—most importantly of all—genuinely fun, and the result is what will be one of the most talked-about genre pictures of the year. Together is screening at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, which runs January 22-February 2 in Park City and Salt Lake City, UT, and January 30-February 2 online.

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