I enjoyed “Together” more than expected. I already knew a bit about what it is about, so there is not much surprise for me, but this modest horror film turns out to have more wit, style, and substance for handling its story and characters. In addition, it is willing to push itself along with its two committed lead performers, and you will appreciate how these two talented performers are ready to go all the way for its logical conclusion.

Dave Franco and Alison Brie, who also participated in the production of the film as co-producers, play Tim Brassington and Millie Wilson, a young couple who happen to move to a small town because of Millie’s new teaching job. On the surface, they look fine and happy when they are having a party along with their friends before their moving day, but we gradually feel the conflicts beneath their supposedly stable relationship. While he seems willing to support Millie’s school teacher career, Tim has actually felt more like a burden to his partner’s life and career, and he also wants to continue to pursue his modest musician career more, even though nothing much looks promising in his career for now. In case of Millie, she is willing to go further with more commitment in their relationship, but then she is quite disappointed when her partner hesitates in front of what is going to be a very important moment for their relationship.

Anyway, it seems that things will go fairly well for them as they begin to settle in their new residence, a nice little house located near a big forest outside the town. While Tim works on a new piece of music in their house, Millie starts her first days at a local school, and she also befriends one of her new colleagues, who happens to live not so far from her house and is quite willing to get to know her and Tim as a good neighbor.

One day, Millie and Tim decide to go inside that big forest for a brief walk, but then they get lost in the middle of the forest before encountering a mysterious cave hidden below the ground. After getting tumbled together into this strange cave, they find themselves helplessly stuck there during next several hours, and they cannot help but notice how odd and disturbing this cave looks with an ominous pool inside it.

Although the opening part of the movie already shows a bit of what this cave can do, I will not go into detail on what happens next, but I can tell you instead that Tim and Millie begin to face a serious imminent issue not long after managing to get out of the cave and then go back to their house. As they gradually grasp whatever is happening to them, the old issues in their relationship are resurfaced, and this makes their ongoing situation all the more complicated. While reminded again of how they have been rather distant to each other, they also find themselves more entangled with each other along with the story, and this naturally comes to test their love and relationship to an extreme degree.    

The screenplay by director/writer Michael Shanks, who incidentally made a feature film debut here after making several short films, takes its time as the situation of its two lead characters becomes more alarming with a series of ups and downs. While they become more disturbed by their increasingly sticky circumstance, they also come to sense more of the irresistible force driving them toward each other more and more, and the movie has some nasty fun with that from time to time.  

During the last act, the story comes to lose some of its narrative momentum as revealing more information about the cave, but Shanks and his crew members including cinematographer Germain McMicking steadily maintain considerable intensity and realism on the screen. Thanks to the judicious utilization of special effects, several key moments between its two lead characters look believable enough for us to overlook their many preposterous aspects, and you may wince a bit for a good reason when Millie decides to do something quite drastic for her and her partner with something equivalent to Chekhov’s gun. 

 The movie surely depends a lot on the good chemistry between Franco and Brie, who have actually been a married couple during last several years. Besides looking effortless with considerable intimacy right from the very beginning, they also did a splendid job of conveying to us the underlying emotional issues between their characters, and it is compelling to observe how their performances boldly go further from that along with the film. While Franco, who has been mainly known for his comic performances including his recent Emmy-nominated guest performance in Apple TV+ comedy series “The Studio”, demonstrates a more serious side of his acting talent, Brie, who has been known well for a number of works including Netflix drama series “GLOW”, is equally terrific as ably complementing her co-star throughout the film, and they remain quite convincing even while the story eventually reaches to its utterly outrageous but inevitable finale.  

On the whole, “Together” is an effective genre film which also works as a morbid relationship drama thanks to Shanks’ competent direction as well as the commendable efforts from his two lead performers. In my humble opinion, it is one of more interesting horror flicks of this year, and I assure you that you will not forget it easily after watching it.