Together

My girlfriend and I went to this movie as part of Landmarks mystery movie night. I found the movie really kept you guessing as to what direction it was going to go. I thought Franco and Brie were great for their respective roles. The movie took a turn halfway through that threw me off, but it brought me back in at the end.

Not a revolutionary horror movie by any means but I quite enjoyed it! Recommend for anyone that's interested in checking out an original and interesting horror movie with some depth. I have found myself thinking about the film over the past few days since I saw it. It has a good mix of themes and had a few good laughs.

A bit outlandish at times (maybe even most of the time) but nonetheless I found it entertaining. Check it out 🙂

While some of the cliched tropes in the horror genre are sticked within it's narrative and characters, the original horror concept, great atmosphere, visual make-up designs and the strong performances from Dave Franco and Alison Brie offers a fun horror, comedy and body horror tale.

For a debut project, director Michael Shanks really captures the horrific and bonkers nature of the body horror genre. Raving with great atmosphere, practical effects (which some were grossly cringeworthy which succeeds on the good aspects about body horror), and the direction. The writing explores some interesting themes about relationships, dependency and how bonds can be a fear within the self of someone. While I do admit some aspects, especially the way how characters are approached and some of the elements feel cheesy, the narrative works for the most.

Franco and Brie has some great chemistry between one another, especially when the horror body elements are shown every time they are on screen. Although some of the dialogue moments were a bit strange, as a whole, the horror and body elements of this movie was successful.

Overall, a good Midnight movie.

I love when Dave Franco and Allison Brie act together in a movie. They have great chemistry (duh) and some of the scenes where they had to be intimate seemed very real.

Together was fun, weird, had its dark humorous moments and the special effects were pretty good! It's original, there's plot points that are a bit predictable, but overall I do think it was original.

I honestly really liked the story. I try not to watch trailers close to opening day because they show more for some reason.

At the end of the day, this movie is going to be polarizing. You'll either love that it or hate it.

I loved it!

I'll be honest when I say that the trailers never properly sold me on this movie, it made it seem like a completely different movie than what we got.

The concept is really unique. While there's been some chatter online about possible plagiarism, that's not my place to weigh in on. What I can say is that this film stands on its own with a bold and bizarre approach. The effects are striking, and some moments hit a level of fear and discomfort that really stays with you. It does an excellent job portraying anxiety and the disorienting terror of dreams that blur into reality.

Dave Franco delivers what might be his best performance to date, giving the character a desperate vulnerability that anchors the whole thing. Alison Brie complements him perfectly, and their chemistry helps ground the madness with emotional weight and some dark humour.

It's disturbing, oddly beautiful and full of surprises. If you're into surreal horror with emotional undercurrents and a touch of body horror, it's absolutely worth checking out.

Together was ultimately a very frustrating experience for me, because for every piece of genuinely interesting filmmaking and concepts from writer/director Michael Shanks, there's an equal amount of horror cliches that I've already seen a hundred times. This isn't really helped by the fact that the "twist" is straight up spoiled by every piece of marketing material, despite the movie trying it's best to throw whatever doubt it can during the first act. When it actually gets into actually exploring the body horror, it becomes somewhat interesting again, with a healthy mix of genuine squeamishness and black comedy, although it's far from being the most graphic or disturbing offering in this subgenre.

The acting is generally fine, but does get underminded by the script shoehorning in some of the most obvious foreshadowing of all time. I did find Dave Franco's performance the most amusing since he ends up whipping out a discount Jesse Pinkman voice towards the end of the film, whether that was intentional or not.

While I ultimately didn't hate my experience with Together, I do think that most people will probably end up coming out of this film disappointed, especially due to the intense hype of this supposedly being "the scariest movie of the year". I think that director Michael Shanks definitely has potential to make something truly great if he tries, since this is his debut full-length feature. Here's to hoping that Mr Shanks is able to find his own voice in cinema.