Movies

5 Great Relationship Horror Movies to Watch After Together

The new romatnic horror film Together comes from a long line of greats. Here are 5 to watch.

NEON

The horror film Together sees real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie starring as Tim and Millie, self-described “partners” who are stuck in a turbulent patch of their long-term relationship. When the pair moves from the city upstate for Millie’s new teaching job, a rural hike turns into a freaky night of survival, stuck underground in an ancient cave. After escaping the woods, Tim and Millie find they’ve been infected by a supernatural force that is slowly be surely drawing them together, and causing the bodies to fuse. The nightmare process quickly drags up every corner of their shared life, including the darkest parts they’ve been scared to share.

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The power of Together is in mixing cringe-worthy romantic tension and conflict with a novel new form of body-horror grotesquerie. However, the underlying trick of using the horror genre to reflect the power, madness, and/or brutality of love is nothing new.

Here are 5 Great relationship-horror movies to watch after Together, which find different (scary and/or funny) ways to examine love.

5) Warm Bodies

Summit/Lionsgate

Together is as much a dark comedy as it is romantic horror, and if that aspect of the film is what resonates the most with you, then Warm Bodies is an easy follow-up to recommend. Jonathan Levine’s 2013 film stars Nicholas Hoult (Superman‘s Lex Luthor) as “R,” a zombie wandering the wasteland of the zompocalypse with little to no memory of his former life and self. “R” is unique in that he can absorb memories from the brains he eats; one brain turns out to belong to the boyfriend of a very pretty girl named Julie (Teresa Palmer), who quite literally brings life back into R’s heart, after he sees and learns all about her through memories.

Slowly but surely, R’s romantic pursuit begins to cure his zombification, while a budding, awkward romance forms between him and Julie. Only problem? Julie’s dad (John Malkovich) is a brutal general trying to eliminate zombies for good, while super-zombies known as “bonies” are gathering for their world-ending strike against humans and regular zombies alike. Warm Bodies navigates the same awkward relationship dynamics as Together, with a much lighter comedic touch but also far more zombie gore.

You can stream it on Prime Video.

4) Only Lovers Left Alive

Soda Pictures

Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man, Ghost Dog) nailed something special with his 2013 gothic horror comedy-drama. Before the whole world saw Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as Marvel movie icons, they starred together as an ancient vampire married couple who has been estranged for decades. Hiddleston’s “Adam” is a musician who has influenced music for centuries, but lost his passion for art and life; Swinton is “Eve,” who finds plenty of lavish enjoyment to keep her eternal life occupied. When Eve senses Adam is close to ending his own life, the couple reconnects. After some adventurous nights out, their secret existence comes under threat thanks to Eve’s young, impulsive vampire sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska). It’s a film mainly aimed at the aging artists, rockers, and hipsters of Gen Z who don’t jibe with the new world around them, but it’s also a welcome piece of cinema from one of that generation’s best.

You can stream it on Prime Video and Tubi.

3) What Lies Beneath

20th Century Studios

Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer steamed up the screen so much in Robert Zemeckis’ 2000 supernatural thriller (scripted by Agents of SHIELD star Clark Gregg!) that it’s become an iconic image synonymous with the film. The story follows Claire Spencer (Pfeiffer) and her scientist husband Norman (Ford), who move to lakeside Vermont for a fresh start, after Claire sends her daughter off to college, and attempts to recover from a near-death car crash a year before. As the couple starts to settle in, Claire begins to have haunting visions and supernatural experiences that convince her the house is haunted. However, the more she questions and investigates, the more the mystery leads back to dark secrets of her own relationship โ€“ ghosts that are literally and figuratively hanging over her and Norman. While it’s far more serious in tone, What Lies Beneath remains one biggest cult-classic icons of relationship horror there is, offering one hell of a twist.

You can stream it on Paramount+.

2) Interview with the Vampire

Warner Bros. Pictures

Now that it’s a hit TV series that is able to lean completely into the subtext of Anne Rice’s novel, it’s almost more impressive to rewatch the 1994 Interview with the Vampire movie. Decades ahead of its time, Neil Jordan’s adaptation played with so many hot-button subtextual themes of sexuality, race, class, religion, and history. It chronicles the story of a young Louisiana plantation owner (Brad Pitt) who is seduced and transformed by a charismatic and ruthless vampire (Tom Cruise) in the 18th century. While never formally labeled, the two bond in a relationship that stretches hundreds of years, and is overflowing with blood, but eventually comes to a violent head when the younger vampire grows old enough to question whether his partner’s turning him was an act of love, loneliness, or enslavement.

The fact that the film was so successful and celebrated in its time, with a cast of the biggest stars of that time, speaks to how universally appealing Rice’s dark saga of love, obsession (and all the melancholy that comes with them), really is.

You can only rent Interview with the Vampire on Prime Video or Apple TV. You can stream the TV reboot on AMC networks.

1) Midsommer

A24

Ari Aster’s 2019 “folk horror film” gets a lot of notoriety for being set entirely in daylight, or being the big breakout moment for actress Florence Pugh. However, Midsommar strikes such a deep chord and lives rent-free in so many fans’ heads because of how viciously acute it is at depicting the dynamic of a toxic relationship.

After Pugh’s character Dani suffers an unimaginable family tragedy, it’s clear that her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) is not going to step up and be the man she needs. When Christian drags Dani along for a trip overseas to the remote rural commune home of their Swedish friend, it’s just as clear that Christian is checking out of the relationship, just as Dani is leaning into it harder than ever. That’s not a great place to be in, physically or romantically, when it’s revealed that the commune is actually a cult, one that practices dark and deadly ancient rituals.

Midsommer is as bleak and cynical about relationships as any movie can be, positing the idea that ultimately, we may be happier and healthier alone, rather than being with a toxic partner.

You can stream it on Sling TV.