Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s new body horror has a graphic sex scene that has led the director to defend it against accusations of being ‘unnecessary’.
The film, called Together, released in selected theatres in the US this week and comes out on August 15 in the UK.
Franco and Brie, themselves a married couple in real life, play a couple in the film who have been dating for years.
After they move to the countryside existing tensions continue to grow and they are faced with a ‘nightmarish’ encounter with an otherworldly force that begins to corrupt them.
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With 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes the film looks to be one of the best horrors of the year however director Michael Shanks has been forced to come out and defend a graphic sex scene in the film.
Film discussion online around sex scenes in the last few years has often centred around the idea that most intimate scenes in films aren’t ‘necessary’.
When asked by The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview however, Shanks was quick to defend both sex scenes in general and specifically the one in the film.
He said that the narrative around it seemed to imply that ‘the function of a sex scene is always titillation’.
He went on to add: “[Sex] is so fundamental to life, and it’s why we are all here. Our film is trying to paint a holistic view of the romantic relationship experience, and its absence would be notable, particularly with a premise like this that is all about the body and physical closeness.
“Shout-out to my partner Louie, who came up with the idea for that sex scene", he said.
“When she first said it to me, I did think, 'Oh, that’s maybe too far'. But then I took a minute and thought, 'What do I mean? That’s such a great idea'."
Without spoiling too much about the film, the sex scene involves a bizarre moment in which both the couple’s genitals begin to fuse together.
Shanks revealed that it was late in production when he convinced the team that they ‘needed to see genitals’ in the scene.
He went on to add: “It just so happened that my partner was working for a sex toy company at the time.
“So she had access to extremely realistic genitalia.”
The film’s sex scene, though bizarre, has been a major hit with fans.
One tweet about the film read: “The sex scene in Together is my new favourite sex scene, if you even care.”
Reviews of the film have been widely positive, with Tomris Laffrey of RogerEbert.com giving the movie a 3.5 star review.
They said in their review: “Finding out whether an on-screen couple have what it takes has rarely felt this cutting, and, ultimately, this rewarding.
Together releases in cinemas in the UK on August 15.
Topics: Film, TV and Film, Sex and Relationships
Michael Slavin