TOGETHER

After a decade together, Tim and Millie (played by real-life couple Dave Franco and Allison Brie) move from the city to the countryside, where Millie takes on a role at the local school. Keen to explore their new surroundings, the pair venture into the nearby woods on a hike and when a storm hits they end up falling into a mysterious, creepy cave, where an unsettling presence lingers. Exhausted from their ordeal, they fall asleep on the cave floor. On awakening, they discover that one of their legs has fused to the other’s, forcing them to rip their own skin apart to break free. “It’s probably just mildew” Tim says, in a gross understatement of what’s actually at play. When they return home, nothing feels the same. An inexplicable, magnetic-like pull to stay together takes hold, and their bodies attempt to fuse at every chance they get. Recognising that something is terribly wrong, they try to keep their distance from each other, but their efforts only make matters worse. This body horror will have you in the edge of your seat, half intrigued and half repulsed. There’s a highly disturbing hair eating scene you won’t forget in a hurry – it made one cinema-goer audibly retch. The acting is superb with Franco and Brie conveying the horror, unease and confusion their characters feel, while infusing a few laughs along the way to lighten the tension. Expert manipulation of lighting and sound drags you into scenes, and you can’t look away, despite knowing there won’t be a good outcome. The only frustrating element was the lack of an explained scientific reason behind their coupling, but given the whole film feels like a metaphor for codependency, perhaps there isn’t one. A disturbing, visceral movie that gives new meaning to finding your “other half”.