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Last year Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance made audiences cringe with its unrelenting body horror opening up a discussion about women’s unfair beauty standards. Michael Shanks’s feature film debut Together can be discussed in similar terms, albeit its use of body horror to lift the veil on the boundaries of relationships, and how couples navigate maintaining individual identities while being part of a cohesive unit.

You know, if all that was said while said couple was melding into each other. Practically a two-hander, with real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie being on screen the entire movie, the couple balances every squelching sequence with a deep balance between romance and resentment. One of the best horror films of the year may also be the most romantic and dramatic in a way that leaves you saying “Aw” for every “Ew.”

Millie and Tim (Brie and Franco, respectively) have spent a decade of their life together. But where Millie is ready to move to the country and start a new job, Tim is worried his dreams of being a musician are disappearing. The couple’s move feels less like a next step and more a death knell. But when the two fall into a mysterious hole during a hike, and drink from a spring within, they unleash a horror that sees them start to meld into each other.

You’ll know exactly if Together is for you the minute you see two dogs start fusing into each other. This is a movie about the coalescence of identity, and how much two people try to fight against it. We meet Millie and Tim as they’re planning for their big country move. The pair worries they’re less in love with each other and more used to each other. The potential death of their relationship is only the first bit of existential dread in the movie. Tim’s friend says, “When I die, I don’t want someone else’s life flashing before my eyes.” And Millie and Tim discuss what final social media message they’d want to leave when they die.

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The genius is how Shanks’s screenplay says, “But is it death in the way you think?” The couple’s move to the country only isolates them further—Millie’s only friend is mild-mannered teacher/co-worker Jamie (an always great Damon Herriman)—while Tim seems to be suffering from depression. He won’t have sex with Millie and has nightmares about his parents, who died in horrific fashion. The two’s entire relationship is one big red flag and, as Millie says, “If we don’t split now it’ll only get harder later.” Little does she know! The pair decide to go on a hike, conveniently where the dog fusing at the opening takes place and the rest is history.

There’s a play-like quality to Together, particularly because outside of stray drop-ins from Herriman’s character and an opening party, Brie and Franco are the two in every scene. Hell, they’re predominately the only two characters alone in the majority of scenes, only fueling the isolation they face further. But they hold as strongly as their fused together arms. Franco’s Tim is closed-in, filled with trauma as well as just good old fashioned fear that there’s a potentially better life for him as a single man. Where Millie is all smiles and sociability, Tim is the rain cloud who can’t make the best of things. Franco has the showier role—he’s the one choking down Millie’s hair in one scene—but Brie gives such a natural, organic performance. As Millie tells Tim, she doesn’t want to be his mother. She wants a life with a partner.

The horror starts quick and dirty. Before you can say “Spice Girls”—it makes sense in the movie—the pair are unable to be apart from each other, Tim is slamming into shower walls, and the pair are stuck together in VERY uncomfortable places. Brie and Franco are able to infuse these moments with the terror they require, but also a natural levity. As if you could see this real-life couple trying to figure out these situations. When the pair get lost in the woods, Tim breaks the discomfort by joking about “finding North” while, later, when the pair get stuck together during sex, the way Brie says “I’m sorry” is both gasp and laughter-inducing. It’s a vital component to keep the movie from becoming too oppressive.

If there’s a misstep in it’s trying to explain the sinister forces behind the magical water. Clocking in at a little under two hours, the movie’s pace is perfect once the couple starts trying to figure out what the hell is happening to them. But when a character who you obviously assume has nefarious intentions turns out to be just that, and starts explaining the details that are fueling the transformation it feels like letting the air out of the balloon. Particularly during the film’s final image which leaves all hosts of questions that don’t need to be explained, but do because of all the other people who have conceivably done this. It never ruins the movie outright but it’s lily gilding that isn’t needed.

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But, hey, where else will you get a Spice Girls needle drop?

Together is a wild ride that, for all the squishing and melding, is also a powerful story of romantic complacency. Brie and Franco are utterly superb. This is one that left me cringing as often as it made me find these two utterly darling. It’s a special one you should take your loved one to go see.

Grade: A-

Together is in theaters Wednesday.

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Are you seeing Together on Friday? What have you heard about this one? Leave a comment below or join us in The Film Maven Chat to discuss this and other topics!