SPOILERS AHEAD (obviously)…
Together, directed by Michael Shanks, is a film that combines body horror, romance, and humor to create a commentary on relationships. The story follows Tim and Millie, a longtime couple that make the decision to move to the countryside from the city. This move tests their relationship in several ways and challenges what they think they know about the other and themselves. As tensions rise, these two characters find themselves closer to each other than ever before.
This horror film blends body horror with romance and humor, creating a unique story with absurd twists and turns. As the two main characters discover more details about themselves, each other, and their relationship, the audience does as well. However, before hidden details are revealed, hints are dropped that immerse the audience in the storyline. Details are revealed through mystery presented in the opening sequence, Jamie’s story, Tim’s past trauma, and Tim and Millie’s gradual descent into a new world.
Partners in Crime
The film opens on a search party looking for a couple, Simon and Keri. Police search as well as their friends and family with K-9’s scouting the area. A couple of search dogs look in a cave and both drink from the water inside. Shortly thereafter, they are found staring intently at each other, and then they are seen in a barn seemingly choppily fused together.
Later in the film, Millie discovers a drawing that one of her students made of two dogs fused together. In the drawing they look sad and sacred. Millie asks the child if those are her dogs to which she replies, “not anymore.” As for Simon and Keri, Tim visits a doctor’s office for a manic episode he has and is given a prescription. While there, the doctor mentions a couple that went missing in the same area he and Millie just explored, prompting him to look into the case. He begins looking into the cave and insisting to Millie that something happened to them while they were in there, despite her resistance. Tim eventually finds Tim and Keri inside the cave, living as a homunculus-type creature, partially fused together into a misshapen being.
One Man with Two Pasts
Jamie is an intriguing character that holds the answers to what is happening to Tim and Millie the whole time. He meets Millie at the school where she works and tells her that “the woods and trails are amazing,” encouraging her and Tim to embark on their hike to the cave. After they escape, Jamie joins them at home for dinner and they tell him the story. He then tells them about a chapel that collapsed in the area.
Shortly thereafter, Millie visits Jamie’s home where she finds a framed picture of two men fishing. They both look like different aspects of Jamie. During this visit, Millie inquires about Jamie living alone to which he replies, “there were actually two of us when we bought this place.” It is shown during this interaction that he wears two wedding bands. At the time, it seems that his partner may have passed away, but truly, he wears both wedding bands because he is a fusion of two married men.
Tools in Trauma
Tim has deep-seeded trauma and nightmares that progress the story and ultimately help him figure out what is happening to him and Millie throughout the film. The night before he and Millie move away from the city, he has a nightmare where Millie faces away from him, taunting him and telling him that he needs her more than she needs him. She then asks Tim to tell “them” to stop staring at them. Tim sees his parents across the bed from him and Millie, his father deceased and his mother looking at him with a grim look on her face. Tim tries to hide under the covers of his bed but she appears under there as well.
Shortly thereafter, Tim and Millie unpack boxes but Tim smells something peculiar coming from upstairs. He discovers a group of rats with their tails ties together, deceased resting inside the light fixture. Millie asks how he thought to look there but he does not answer. He later explains to her in the cave that when he was a child his father was upset with him for a smell coming from his bedroom. He cleaned his room but still did not notice or get rid of the smell. His father later discovered a rat inside the light fixture. The smell of burning flesh was gradual, so for Tim, it was not noticeable and he had lived with it for months. This is also reminiscent of when his father passed away and his mother did not move him but stayed in the same room every night as his body decayed.
The trauma that Tim carries helps him to survive and keep himself and Millie safe throughout the film. The story of his parents is also reminiscent of what happens to him and Millie. His mother is so devoted to her relationship with his father that she refuses to acknowledge his death at all. This is similar to Tim and Millie’s overall dynamic as they fuse together and become fully dependent on one another. Tim also has a nightmare in the cave that foreshadows the film’s third act where the cave is breathing, almost as if he is trapped inside someone else’s lungs. His fragile emotional state causes him to actually think more clearly and figure out the situation he and Millie face faster than anyone else.
Two Become One
Millie and Tim’s relationship dynamic controls the majority of the film’s storyline. Toward the beginning of the film, Tim talks with Millie’s brother about making music and asking Millie for permission to play with his band. Millie’s brother tells him that he has become less “cool” since being with Millie and then adds, “when I die, I don’t wanna see someone else’s life flash before my eyes.” This sparks Tim’s desperation for independence, a source of tension between him and Millie afterward.
When Tim and Millie unpack at the new house, they discover n electric knife in one of the boxes. Tim says to Millie, “never let me use that,” a comedic quip considering that Millie actually uses the same knife to saw their arms apart later in the film. Another darkly comedic moment arises when, at the beginning of the film, Millie says to Tim, “if we don’t split now it’ll be much harder later” regarding them breaking up, but she says this same line later in the film when they are physically fused together. This is a direct example of the film’s symbolism, representing co-dependency in relationships.
There are several instances that show Tim and Millie fusing together before the climax of the film. In the cave, they find that their legs are stuck together but presume that it is simply mildew. Shortly after, when Millie heads into town and Tim takes a shower, his body follows the movements of her car. This prompts Tim to visit a doctor who prescribes him muscle relaxants, but he ultimately only uses them so that they can pull apart from each other in a later scene when the begin to fuse together in the hallway of their home. They also experience the fusion when they kiss each other and their mouths stick together, and another time when Millie wakes up in the middle of the night to find Tim choking on her hair. Tim later has an episode at the train station when he goes to leave for his gig with her brother, and he shows up at her work simply because he cannot be apart from her. They then become stuck together inside a bathroom stall. These instances all occur as a slow burn, building up to the climax of the film where Millie and Tim make the choice to fully fuse together upon uncovering their alternative options.
Music used in Together was chosen to fit the themes of the film. Millie mentions that Tim bought her a record of the Spice Girls after she told him that they were her favorite band. Tim later plays this record as they fuse together to the song “2 Become 1.” This scene also adds to the darkly comedic tone that stays consistent throughout the film. Director Michael Shanks also notes that bells were included in the film’s score to incorporate the chapel bells that are shown throughout the story. Each component of the film drives the darkly humorous narrative, leading up to the climactic ending where Tim and Millie become a single entity, revealed in the film’s shocking final shot. Together drives body horror and humor to spark a conversation about extreme co-dependency and loss of individuality in relationships.
