redshoesfall

I'm not going easy on this romantic horror because the marketing didn't go so easy either, desperately pulling all punches to ensure that we knew that there were xyz body horror scenes.... Look, I'm a body horror nut. I've watched high horror like The Substance and The Thing, to low-brow low-budget nastiness like Maniac, Terrifer, and Premutos. Some obviously better than others, but still, I can attest to any genre flick, usually charm and a solid story/characters and the visuals will take you very far, though a balancing act.

The body horror here? Nothing anywhere near squeemish-inducing like it so wants you to think or feel. The pacing makes it predictable, and nothing about its cinematic techniques makes it more or less graphic than any R-rated comedy. Which would also be good to mention, tonally--Together is flat. I was hoping there would be some chemistry considering Brie and Franco are married IRL, but the couple just come off as a bundle of red flags you don't really care much about, which flattens their characters as well. There's no real humor, no romance, no horror (and that is fine if you found anything in the film at all horrifying, to each their own). The overall film doesn't look all that moody, just that clean modern look. Nothing subtle or cool about it. The plot is dull, if not stupid, which is fine if again, it wasn't so dull, not to mention several loose threads they don't care to tie up. It felt like we don't get the inciting incident until literally halfway into the movie, and when we finally get to the weird/creepy horror things, they're pretty satisfactorily delivered, but nothing your average Conjuring or even low-budget flick could do better with far more tension.

Overall, as a horror lover to other horror lovers: I honest to God wouldn't recommend this dull, dumb movie. Honestly, I would've liked it better if it tried to be more artistic, more silly, more risky, more campy, more personality, more ANYTHING that something this aggravatingly generic. And why I'm so angry is because the script and plot were so dull, I wouldn't be surprised if the writers used Chat GPT as a source of inspiration. The ending falls flat, the very predictable plot device was beyond cheap and cliche... and it was just bad. Mediocre popcorn horror.

On the other hand, I think this is pretty acceptable to those who don't eat up horror like horror-nerds do, so if you like the movie, all power to you. If you want a step-up from this flick look no further than Bring Her Back, released literally in the same year with similar sets, plot devices, and elements, but used them so brutally, expressively, and creatively. BHB wasn't the best thing ever, but I would way recommend that Aussie gem over this. It's kind of like BHB is for Together like The First Omen was for Immaculate.

Watch the indies first, people!! Give indies their flowers because more likely than not, they are bursting with far more risk and style and ideas that Hollywoodish movies like these are sort of trying to replicate while involving authoritative artistic voices as little as possible.

A presumably strong female character who's great at her job gets randomly triggered from old trauma and goes through psychosis.

Idk it just rode that trope and did nothing more. I would recommend films like martyrs, sissy, or make up in its stead (random choices, bc theres so many 'female hysteria' movies).

Yeah it was just bad. Don't get hyped like I did.

Also I'm a woman, why is it films always portray us freaking out over trauma and committing horrid acts? Like it happens but so many women I know have been through far worse than a lot of these types of protags and manage to still be kind, helpful, fun, nice people. I'm tired.

Nice. There's planes. Brendan Fraiser. Some good CGI. Brendan put his all into his roles. Pretty sure he was a God or something, he definitely did his research. And they have nice costume designs, really shiny stuff. They make an actress ride a horse next to a plane which was pretty epic. Spielberg needs to see what Saving Private Ryan inspired. Cloud Atlas wishes it could be this realistic. I'm pretty sure this is Brendan's comeback. Welcome back Brendan!