Horror is presently experiencing a massive boom on the big screen, and while one of the most delightful aspects of the success is that it hasn’t been defined by any single subgenre, there is no question that body horror is having a special moment. One of the most beloved and talked about movies of all of 2024 was Caroline Fargeat’s incredible, sexy and totally disgusting The Substance, and audiences were shocked by what they witnessed earlier this summer in Danny and Michael Philippou’s Bring Her Back. It’s a trend that is continuing in excellent fashion this week with the release of Together starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco – and writer/director Michael Shanks has been delighted to see the obvious hunger demonstrated by sick puppy cinephiles.
Together made its world premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, but the filmmaker got to see The Substance with a collection of his colleagues while the work was still being finished, and it certainly made an impression. When I spoke with Shanks last week during the Los Angeles press day for his new 2025 movie, I asked him about the love for body horror that has been getting a spotlight since the release of the Demi Moore/Margaret Qualley film late last year, and he offered a candid response to the Oscar-winner:
Yeah, The Substance was a huge body horror boom! We watched that whilst we were in post. We were editing the movie and it played the Melbourne International Film Festival. And myself, the producer Mike (Cowap) and the editing team, we all went out, watched that movie, and we left being like, 'Goddamn, they had so much more money than us.' Like, 'Oh god, the amount of shots that they had!'
I feel I should note: it’s a funny and self-effacing comment from the director, as while it’s true that Together doesn’t go quite as big as The Substance, it has more than a few scenes with great effects that will turn your stomachs. In the new horror movie, the aforementioned Alison Brie and Dave Franco play a couple that moves to a house in a remote, sparsely populated town and becomes afflicted by a supernatural force. A commentary on co-dependent relationships, the protagonists find themselves literally drawn to each other, and the moments of fusion are… not for movie-goers with weak stomachs.
Not only was Michael Shanks wowed by The Substance as a film with some stunning practical effects, he was equally pleased to be a part of a crowd of people who delighted in the revolting insanity as much as he did. He witnessed a theater audibly loving the nastiness being projected, and he recalled the terrifying work of his countrymen Danny and Michael Philippou getting similar responses with their recent features. He continued,
But it was awesome! And I've watched that in a crowded theater and people were like hooting and hollering and just being like, 'Yes! It's not just for weird little perverts like me!' People are really liking this stuff. And seeing there's body horror stuff coming out in the Philippou brothers work on Bring Her Back and Talk To Me.
As for whether or not there’s a reason why body horror is having such a great moment in the sun right now, Michael Shanks made an interesting point: it may not be anything specific, because one of the greatest things about the subgenre is that it’s both universal and timeless. Each and every one of us have complicated feelings about the bags of meat in which they inhabit, and there is endless opportunity to exploit it with cinema magic. Said Shanks,
I think it's kind of an evergreen genre because we all, I'll be shocking people here: We all have bodies. And I have a weird relationship with my body. We all probably do. And so to have like a horror film where it's not a slasher or an alien or a creature that you can run away from, but it's like something inside you that you can't control, as a professional hypochondriac, that's just something that I find really scary.
Also starring Damon Herriman, Together is the newest offering from Neon – the distributor that has brought us the horrors of The Monkey, Cuckoo, Longlegs, and Immaculate – and it will be arriving in theaters this Wednesday, July 30. Be sure to check it out on the big screen and then make your way back here to CinemaBlend for more of our coverage, including my interview with Alison Brie and Dave Franco and more from my conversation with Michael Shanks.
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