What if every cliche about codependent relationships became gruesomely literal—like your limbs seizing up and your flesh merging? Together turns that hypothetical into a full-on body-horror spectacle where love becomes inescapably grotesque.
Together, the latest feature from Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks, slaps horror onto relationship anxiety so viscerally that your body might ache. Real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie play Tim and Millie, who move to the countryside only to discover just how terrifying intimacy can get. It’s a gorgeously nasty metaphor for what happens when you lose yourself in someone else.
From YouTube to Flesh-Melding Feature: Michael Shanks’s Bold Leap
This is not the Stargate guy. This Michael Shanks is a Melbourne-based creative who’s spent years honing his visual effects wizardry and narrative muscle on YouTube and shorts. With Together, he dives headfirst into the cinematic deep end, and doesn’t come up for air. What begins as a slow-burn relationship drama quickly morphs into a full-body freakshow about emotional and physical entanglement—emphasis on entangle.
A Personal Codependency Ode Wrapped in Nightmare VFX
Shanks wrote this movie as a love letter and a panic attack all in one. “This is a film about the potential horror of sharing a life with someone; the lingering anxieties of commitment writ large,” he explained. Inspired by his own long-term relationship, Together takes the fear of losing your sense of self and mutates it—literally.
And with VFX from Framestore (yes, the Oscar-y folks behind Blade Runner 2049 and Gravity), that metaphor gets rendered in high-def skin-peeling precision. This is body horror with commitment issues.
Stars In Sync (Physically and Emotionally)
Franco and Brie, married IRL and now co-stars and producers, bring exactly the kind of chemistry you’d want in a movie where two people slowly start physically fusing together. “There’s just so many types of fears and anxieties that you can have around those things, and when it comes to romantic relationships, fear of commitment, it feels evergreen as a topic,” Brie said.
They reportedly spent most of the production in prosthetics and some scenes required them to go to the bathroom as a unit. If that doesn’t scream dedication to the craft, what does?
What Actually Happens—Spoiler-Lite
Tim and Millie’s attempt to fix their faltering love by going rural gets derailed when they fall into a supernatural cave. One sip of mystery pond water later and Tim starts mutating, their bodies start fusing, and their bond becomes horrifyingly literal. There are confessions, hallucinations, gooey VFX, and the kind of emotional gut-punches you don’t usually expect when a guy’s hand is disappearing inside his girlfriend’s thigh.
Why It Matters for Genre Freaks and Relationship Rats
Together is what happens when horror is used not just for jump scares, but for full-on emotional excavation. It’s part Cronenberg, part Eternal Sunshine, part break-up therapy. You don’t have to be a horror head to relate to the terrifying question at the movie’s core: who the hell am I when I’m not part of us?
Final Byte
Yes, Together is gross. And yes, it’s kind of sweet. It takes that creepy little voice in your head whispering, “You’re losing yourself in this relationship,” and cranks it into a scream—then gives it a prosthetic arm to wave around. This isn’t just a body horror film. It’s a romantic panic attack with high production value and great hair.
Together drops in theaters July 30, 2025.
I write like I think—fast, curious, and a little feral. I chase the weird, the witty, and the why-is-this-happening-now. From AI meltdowns to fashion glow-ups, if it makes you raise an eyebrow or rethink your algorithm, I’m probably writing about it. Expect sharp takes, occasional sarcasm, and zero tolerance for boring content.