Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country. With tensions already flaring, an encounter with an unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love and their flesh.

The best horror films tap into a universal fear – that something is underneath the water trying to get you (Jaws), that your kids aren’t safe with a babysitter (Halloween), or being alone in the woods is scary (take your pick). Together sends up the horror based on your average fear of commitment.

Dave Franco is Tim, a mid-30s slacker chasing a music career, but not too passionately. He has been with Millie (Alison Brie) for nearly a decade. She’s a teacher and just got a new job at a school somewhere in the woods (see above) of upstate New York. The movie opens with their goodbye party from their apartment in the city and quickly establishes their dynamics: Millie is driven, loves Tim, even pushing him to get engaged, and doesn’t want her investment in him to be wasted. Franco loves Millie, but isn’t as invested in their connection (her comment that they are cute in how they both dressed similarly quickly results in a wardrobe change from him), and he still feels the pull of his former bandmates.

There’s a malevolent force the couple stumbles on that forces a reexamination of their entire relationship. The less said about the rest of the movie, the better. It’s creepy, truly a body horror movie, but it’s also funny at just the right moments. The relationship dynamics are palpable with both characters being victims of their own anxieties and inability to be completely honest with the other. There are gross moments. And, of course, a nod to the Spice Girls.

Look, if body horror and psychological type thrillers are your thing, this serves that up just fine. The relationship dynamics and interplay are both supremely insular and quite universal. That the couple are both drawn and repelled to each is not a subtle metaphor. Brie and Franco have great chemistry (the couple has been married since 2017) and writer-director Michael Shanks doesn’t lean too heavily into the jump scares and gore to turn off more casual viewers.

Jonathan’s grade – B-