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I will be writing horror-focused reviews and commentary, which will appear on
the myalternatereality.com site during October in anticipation of Halloween. In
these reviews/commentaries, I'll be discussing how the films fit into the horror
genres and subgenres and also how they are connected to other horror films from
the past and present. Most of the reviews will be commenting on older, classic,
obscure, and/or underappreciated horror films, including some international
choices. With that established I'm starting off with a recent but rather special fright film which
covers new ground never explored in a movie. After you watch it you might also wish it never gets
explored again.
Together is a masterful, intelligent, and unconventional horror film that
explores, in a symbolic way, the dangers of losing yourself in a relationship.
This is a body horror film that is influenced by David Cronenberg’s work (The
Fly, The Brood, etc.) and more recent French feminist horror films like RAW
(2016) which explores the links between sex and cannibalism as well
Titane
(2021) about a woman who is in love with and makes love to her car (it is not
connected to the popular Queen song: “I’m in Love with My Car.”)
In addition, it shares some common ground with the body horror film
The Substance
(2024). All these films feature characters that suffer some form of horrific bodily
transformation, which usually occurs because of the main characters’ flaws, such
as vanity in
The Substance
or exaggerated codependence in this film. This is their punishment for
making bad choices.
Together, was inspired by the ancient creation myth that appeared in
Plato’s The Republic. Some ancient Greeks wrote and presumably believed that the
first humans were monstrous creatures with spherical bodies, two faces, two
pairs of arms, and two pairs of legs. At some point, Zeus split these proto-humans in half
as a punishment for punishment for their sin of hubris. This is the reason whenever
someone finds romance,
their soul mate, their “better half,” the become naturally drawn to each other.
Both sides yearn to rejoin with their other halves, which were severed from them
long ago.
The couple Tim and Millie in Together are portrayed by real-life married couple
Allison Brie and David Franco. They
fight and snipe at each other like the real couple that they are, all of which
gives a layer of reality to their
convincing performances an greatly elevate the film. Alison
Brie (Millie) you might recognize from her excellent work on the overlapping TV
shows: Mad Men (2007-2015) and Community (2009-2015). She also appeared in the
underappreciated all-female wrestling drama show: Glow (2017- 2019). She was
also fine in the films The Disaster Artist (2017) and The Little Hours (2018).
Her husband David Franco (Tim) is actor James Franco’s less
well-known brother. He was in Superbad (2007) as well as the last season of
Scrubs (2009-2010), plus the aforementioned The Disaster Artist (2017), in which he
shared the screen with both his wife and his brother. This real-life married couple
also worked together in the more mediocre The Rental (2020), but they have much more
chemistry in this film.
Tim and Millie are your basic likeable, joined at the hip, committed couple. They
go everywhere together, and all their friends are mutual. Despite their
emotional intimacy and constant physical proximity, their sex life has gone bad,
and Tim finds it hard to fulfill his physical marriage duties to Millie. Perhaps
his performance anxiety is caused by the fact that he feels inadequate because
she is carrying all of the financial burden in the relationship. Also, his
parents were poor role models; Tim's dad
was borderline abusive, and his mom had severe mental problems. Neither were
ideal role models for a couple modeling. Because of theis
Tim has always had a weird, unconventional, troubled childhood. In a
dream sequence that recalls both Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily,” and
the book and film versions of Psycho, he flashes back to the time when he found
his mom in bed with the decomposing corpse of his dad. Then, in one of the
film’s most haunting images, she gives her son a satisfied, sinister smile when
she sees him.
When at a going-away party, Millie unexpectedly proposes, Tim embarrasses her in
public by not responding right away. Millie then has her own doubts about their
relationship and, at one point,
suggests it might be good for them to separate before it all becomes too hard.
Little does she know how true her statement will turn out to be, but he says yes
and they marry.
The couple relocate so she can start her new grade school teaching job, which she’s
excited about. But this big change moves them far away from their friends and
family. Now he’s just an unemployed, unsuccessful musician in a rock
band, and the move means it will be harder for him to get to gigs or to meet up
with his band for practice. While she is much more enthused about the move than he is,
both soon realize they are almost totally isolated. They make one new friend (well played by Damon Herriman) who teaches at the same school as
Millie. But he is sort of creepy and
always seems to be watching her. He also seems to know more than he lets on
about everything that is going on. This is the kind of odd character role that
throws everything off center that would have been ideal for the late, great
character actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
One day on a hike, the couple falls down into a deep underground cave, and they see
images of people merging on the walls of what was once the remnants of a chapel
that was used by an ancient religion dedicated to helping people rejoin the two
parts of their divided selves, whether they want it or not. While they are stuck
in the hole, Tim convinces Millie to join him in drinking the cave water in a
kind of reversal of the Bible's Genesis in which Eve offers Adam the forbidden fruit.
Some viewers may feel in this case the action ends up bringing the couple back
to a primordial state instead of banishing them from blissful Eden.
After the couple climb out of their hole, a strange physical changes begin to occur
to them almost immediately. Tim starts to feel queasy or sick whenever he
is away from his wife for even a few hours. Also, they are both constantly,
irresistibly drawn to each other (ironically, before this happened, the couple
had stopped having good sex). Tim and Mills’ legs stick together when they make
contact, and it's hard for them to pry apart. Apparently, when you are in a committed
relationship, it’s bad to be too distant or too close. The film raises such
questions as “Is staying in a relationship worth any cost?” and “Is it possible
to completely give yourself to someone without losing yourself? “
Tim begins to investigate the history of the town, which was a center for
occultism and pagan activity. To his horror, he finds out that another couple
that resisted the joining suffered a terrible fate, apparently people who
resist joining might suffer an even worse fate than the merging. This
was plays out in a scene in which the couple watches two suffering dogs with their
faces fused together. Relationships are hard, but breaking up is also hard to
do.
When the movie starts delving into the occult history of the town, it veers into
the folk horror territory of films like the classic Wicker Man (1973), which I
might write about on this page before Halloween. It was also reminiscent of
many of the movies of the modern master of folk horror, Ari Aster. His
Midsomer
(2019) in particular which also featured a man destroyed by townspeople following ancient
traditions. Folk horror films often take place in remote areas and
feature isolated lead characters that are victimized by characters that practice
hidden ancient rituals that are revealed when they require some kind of sacrifice. In many ways, Aster’s
Hereditary also falls into the folk horror sub-genre.
Together was written and directed by Australian actor/director, Michael Shanks. He
acquits himself well and always moves things along at the right pace to keep
things interesting. His first script for the film is bizarre, engaging, and
intellectual, and the film also has an interesting look. He makes excellent use
of scenery and expertly captures the beauty of both the big city of Melbourne
and the countryside.
There was controversy over the film’s Chinese cut. In the US version, we see a
brief glimpse of a same sex wedding on video. But Chinese distributors
complained, so the film was digitally altered, and one of the gay groom’s faces
was changed into a woman’s face. This, in turn, led to homophobia charges
against the studio. So, in other words, the Chinese authorities found that a
two-minute scene that acknowledges homosexuality exists was more objectionable
than extremely graphic heterosexual sex scenes, as well as a scene showing a
human limb being cut off by a saw.
Together is a smart, intriguing, and grotesque film that is bound to go down as
one of the most original and memorable horror films of this year, and in some
moments, it matches the quality and inventiveness of
Sinners.
It has a twisted sense of humor, which comes out in the song choices and how
they are used. During the film’s climax, we hear the Spice Girls' song "2 Become
1” in an ironic context, which is used to generate dark humor. I am sure the
songwriters never envisioned their lightweight pop song being used in such an
odd, comically distorted manner. But as you can
probably guess from my review, it is definitely not a good first date film, and
no children should be allowed to see it.
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