Cryptic teasers and creepy trailers paved the way for “Together”, A24’s latest twisted foray into the world of body horror. “Together” is the directorial debut for writer-director Michael Shanks and has grabbed a lot of attention since premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It stars real-life husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie and tells a tale built upon a fairly obvious allegory. At the same time it lacks the psychological edge that could have made it considerably better.

Franco and Brie play codependent couple Tim and Millie. He’s a struggling musician and she is an elementary teacher who was just hired by a small rural school. As a result, the longtime partners buy a house in the country. But before leaving the city, Millie shocks Tim with a marriage proposal while at a going-away party with friends. His hesitation not only embarrasses her, but it’s the first of several hints that reveal the complications in their relationship.

Once settled in their new home and in desperate need of some quality time together, Tim and Millie take a hike in a nearby forest. Both end up falling into a deep hole where they discover the ruins of an old church – broken pews, broken stain glass windows, and an ominous bell embedded in the rock. But more mysterious is the pool of water than Tim decides to get a drink from. The pair eventually escape, but over time Tim begins to change. The formerly aloof Tim suddenly can’t stay away from Millie. And Millie can’t resist the attention. That’s when their story takes a gnarly Brothers Grimm-esque turn.

Shanks hasn’t been secretive about his film’s big twist. The couple’s connection takes a new form. Their new desires to be ‘together’ are more compulsory as if from a force outside of themselves. Again, the metaphor is pretty clear and the dangers of it are visualized through grotesque sequences of their bodies painfully fusing together whenever they make physical contact. Shanks doubles down on these scenes, leaning into the twisted body horror but finding room for some pitch-black humor as well.

To the film’s credit, it smartly presents us with a fairly likeable couple and a central relationship that is rooted enough in truth to earn our empathy. It does a good job exploring their genuine affections but also the buried resentment that has grown over time. Brie and Franco’s real-life chemistry pays dividends as the two are key in developing an organic on-screen partnership that is easy to believe in.

At the same time, you can’t help feeling that “Together” could have taken everything a little bit further – their attraction, their contentions, their anxieties, their grisly consequences, etc. Even more, the movie never comes across as either a fully realized horror feature or relationship drama. Still, Shanks does a good job conveying the weight of codependency even as his blaring metaphor gets more obvious through each gory mutation. “Together” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS