The terror of commitment takes shape in Sitges

Silos"Are we together because we love each other or because we have become accustomed to each other?" he asks. Together the teacher played by Alison Brie, who is increasingly having doubts about her boyfriend, a musician reluctant to commit, with no professional prospects and, lately, with little desire to make love. Added to their marital crisis is another problem: the supernatural phenomenon that makes it impossible for them to stray too far from each other and, when they touch, their flesh fuses. The perfect nightmare or the solution to marital problems?

Michael Shanks, who presented the film this Friday at Sitges, admits that he finds inspiration in his own life, but not because he has relationship problems. "We have a great relationship, but we've been together for seventeen years now, almost since we were kids," he says. "When we started living together, I started to worry about the idea that maybe I'm no longer a complete person without my partner, because our lives are so intertwined that I don't know where one ends and the other begins." body horror»".

Through a supernatural horror premise, Together It examines the insecurities and neuroses of this couple, played by Brie and her real-life husband, Dave Franco. Shanks, in fact, believes the film would not have been possible without both actors, who are also producers. "If we were able to make the film on such a low budget, it's because we had actors who felt very comfortable with each other, physically and emotionally," he says. "There were days when Dave and Alison were literally joined to each other by a prosthesis, and they had to go to the bathroom too, but they had to go to the bathroom. Note that there is a very special chemistry in their performance," he adds.

It must be said that Together does not want to be Secrets of a marriage, and that his portrayal of relationships is always subordinated to a genuine enjoyment of exploring the physical manifestation of the bodily phenomenon, resolved in a convincing manner and with some very powerful scenes. body horror sticky of fused bodies is not an original idea of the film –Society, by Brian Yuzna, is from 1989–. But after seeing so many severed limbs and exploding heads, the image of two hands merging together can be far more uncomfortable and powerful today than the usual dose of cinematic violence. "If the body horror "The reason it still exists is because, even though the story is supernatural, it's very relatable," Shanks argues. "We all have strange relationships with our bodies, we all have bodies that will betray us, and we will all die because one day our body will say it's over. Having your head split open is a horrible thing, but it's harder for it to happen to you," he continues.

Together It has brought Shank a lot of joy, especially when the film became the sensation at the last Sundance and the distributor Neon bought it for 17 million, but also some headaches with the film's Chinese distributor, who altered a scene in the film. Curiously, it wasn't a scene gore, but a home video of a gay couple's wedding. "They reframed it so only one of the men was visible, and in one scene where they both saw each other, they altered a face to make it look like a woman's, probably using artificial intelligence. It was extremely stupid," explains Shanks, who decided to withdraw the film from screening in China. "It's a shame, but I don't want that version to be shown; what they did is terrible from an artistic and moral point of view," he confesses.

Great adaptation by Mariana Enríquez

Following the success of Our share of the night, which has turned Mariana Enríquez into a star of horror literature, many directors have become interested in her work and there are several adaptations in the works, but the first one to see the light of this batch (in 2002 it was already made into a film) Going down is the pitjor) is The Virgin of the Tosquera, which mixes two stories by the author, which gives the film its title and The cart. Presented this Friday in Sitges, it is a hybrid of a gothic horror tale and a teenage melodrama in which Nat, obsessed with winning over a lifelong friend, sees her romantic aspirations crumble when another older girl appears on the scene who seems to hold the keys to the world.

Directed by Argentinian Laura Casabé, The Virgin of the Tosquera skillfully translates the life-or-death intensity of adolescence into horror, that emotional incandescence that, combined with a lack of life experience, sometimes leads to tragedy. It's impossible to separate the film's desperation and violence from the period in which it is set, that of the Argentine crisis of the early 2000s, which underlines and explains the moral helplessness of the characters. At its core, the film manages dramatic material similar to that of American teen cinema, but with a naturalistic and expressive staging and a dark, almost tragic tone that pushes it towards the territory of supernatural horror.