Michael Shanks
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
…like Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024) without the satire of ageing and celebrity…
Sure looks like The Substance is going to be a reference point moving forward, inspired as it was (and Together is) by Cronenberg and Carpenter.
The caliber and skill of the effects design was reminiscent of the body horror in The Substance, both memorable and shocking.
Like The Substance before it, Together walks a tightrope between the comedic and grotesque.
The Substance thrived on having its last 40 minutes essentially be one large gross-out sequence to hammer out its message. No such luck with Together.
…for a film that’s been described as this year’s The Substance…
John Carpenter’s The Thing…
The opening with the dogs — itself seemingly an allusion to John Carpenter’s The Thing — is the prime example…
…still manages to have enough homages to The Thing with some pretty stellar direction and cutting to keep it mostly afloat.
…brought two caged dogs together, The Thing-like, into one grotesque hybrid…
The set pieces (not to mention mise-en-scene and shooting style) borrow more from the likes of Hereditary than The Thing, a film to which Together directly alludes in its cold open.
Body horror has always been a rather strange little sub-genre, one that has been used to great effect in the past, most notably by filmmaker David Cronenberg in projects like "The Fly," "Videodrome," and "The Brood,"…
…much of the runtime is more Long Day’s Journey Into Night than The Fly…
Think The Fly meets The Notebook—if The Notebook came with prosthetics, blood, and horrifying yet hilarious practical effects.
…this falls short of exceptional entries such as The Fly and Videodrome…
Together plays like a cross between Alien and Cronenberg’s dark films…
…also in the creation of a large organism that brings to mind Ridley Scott’s Alien…
…allusions to artist H.R. Giger, known for his biomechanical art of humans merging with technology and for creating the legendary Xenomorph in Alien…
Much of the film takes place in bright midday lighting evocative of MIDSOMMAR.
In this way, Together recalls Midsommar—another movie building tension in the pit of your stomach before it’s fully realized on screen.
If this sounds a bit like Ari Aster’s 2019 beloved horror film Midsommar, you’re not totally blameless in seeing the parallels. Much like that film was a documentation of a breakup, Together is a film about relationship struggles.
Body horror has always been a rather strange little sub-genre, one that has been used to great effect in the past, most notably by filmmaker David Cronenberg in projects like "The Fly," "Videodrome," and "The Brood,"…
When David Cronenberg wrote The Brood in the late 1970s, the body horror maestro was going through an acrimonious divorce and custody battle.
Body horror has always been a rather strange little sub-genre, one that has been used to great effect in the past, most notably by filmmaker David Cronenberg in projects like "The Fly," "Videodrome," and "The Brood,"…
…this falls short of exceptional entries such as The Fly and Videodrome…
There’s a comparison to be made somewhere in here to Brian Yuzna’s Society, but whatever it is feels lazy. The similarities are, quite literally, skin deep, mostly stemming from the body horror parallels.
For all that it seems to want to get freaky, Together has nothing on The Substance or Society, movies with which it shares an interest in the malleability of bodies.
CONCLUSION: ‘Obsession’ feels like a dark-magic witch’s brew of Together, Fede Álvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead, and Big…
Sure, that could also be said about Bring Her Back, though in a very different way.
Cornel Wilczek's ("Talk to Me," "Bring Her Back") score sets the tone with a downward spiral of moaning strings.
Aesthetically, it’s pretty clearly visually inspired by the early works of Pedro Almodóvar and the visual warmth of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man.
Together just nearly reaches Possession levels of greatness as far as romantic horror goes– but it falls shy of delivering a soul crushing closer like its spiritual sibling.
…the movie’s dissection of relationships and how it relates to the body has some influence from the subgenre’s master, David Cronenberg, more specifically his 1996 classic, Crash.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Directed by John Cameron Mitchell
influenced Together (2025)
Themes
Fans of John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch are already familiar with the beauty of this story…
If you enjoyed Together, you should watch Saw, another romantic horror favorite (in my opinion).
Think The Fly meets The Notebook—if The Notebook came with prosthetics, blood, and horrifying yet hilarious practical effects.
…more recently Amat Escalante’s The Untamed…
The set pieces (not to mention mise-en-scene and shooting style) borrow more from the likes of Hereditary than The Thing…
Like in The Amityville Horror, Tim and Milly’s relocation to an elegantly isolated house in the woods brings out their simmering tensions around sex and other issues that may or may not be irreconcilable…
…possibly cinema’s best use of the Spice Girls (sorry, Spice World fans.)