In psychological terms, “enmeshment” refers to a form of emotional closeness where boundaries are nonexistent and individuals become so involved with each other they lose themselves. This phenomenon is at the core of Michael Shanks’ directorial debut “Together,” a horror movie that imagines the outcome of toxic codependency to its most literal and gruesome ends.

“Enmeshment”? What happens in “Together” is more like “enfleshment.” Ever have the fleeting thought that you’d like to climb inside a lover’s skin? Shanks sets out to depict exactly what that might look like.

To bring this high-concept metaphor to life, Shanks has a pair of wholly committed performers — in more ways than one. Married actors Dave Franco and Alison Brie bring an extra layer of significance and intimacy to their performances as Tim and Millie, long-term partners who have been rocked by a big move for Millie’s new job.

At the outset, it feels like this couple is on the verge of a breakup or a next step, as they navigate their careers, personal baggage, and the stagnancy of their relationship against the backdrop of a brand-new home in a small, rural town (Australia doubles, poorly, for an anonymous American locale). When they’re stranded during a hike in a mysterious cave overnight, the ordeal seems to bring them together, though Tim starts having strange, violent spells in the days afterwards.

Situating Tim as the fragile, vulnerable half of a problematic partnership feels like a modern gender role reversal of the usual trope (think Rosemary Woodhouse in “Rosemary’s Baby”). But it’s also a sharp piece of contemporary cultural commentary about the current state of gender roles in heterosexual relationships, with a high-achieving woman partnered to a floundering man. Tim, a struggling musician who hopes to keep his career afloat, is supported by Millie and her teaching job, while she and her best friend question if he’s worth it after a decade together.

The two are hopelessly reliant on each other — he cooks, she drives, so Tim is trapped, their only neighbor Millie’s coworker Jamie (Damon Herriman), who becomes increasingly involved in their crisis. As Tim’s spells and seizures progress, Millie’s crisp assertiveness and chipper problem-solving almost feels like gaslighting. She is at first furious with his erratic behavior until she starts to exhibit the same symptoms; their bodies seem to revolt when they’re apart. Eventually it’s like they’re magnets being pulled inexorably, horrifically together.

Shanks pulls off several highly effective jump scares and jaw-dropping sequences of squeamish tension — the phrase “Chekhov’s electric saw” might enter your lexicon — but ultimately, “Together” isn’t much more than a thin metaphorical gimmick. There are allusions to Tim’s childhood trauma that might speak to his susceptibility to these kinds of relationships, but it’s never fully explored. Millie’s character is also disappointingly flimsy, though Franco and Brie bring up-for-anything ethic to the material.

The screenplay feels like Shanks reverse-engineered a folk horror narrative around a few bravura scenes, with a philosophy inspired by ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes' myth (also explored in the song “The Origin of Love” from the musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”). While the scare tactics are genuinely disturbing and well-executed, the scope of the story feels limited, and the supernatural body horror doesn’t make much sense either, with atmosphere and mood taking precedence over articulation.

Shanks takes this enmeshment body horror concept to the physical limit without asking why or how relationships become toxic or how to save oneself from this plight. So while “Together” offers a few rattling screams, gruesomely original images, and a pair of actors who are game for it all, the result is not much more than a frustratingly slight genre exercise.

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'TOGETHER'

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for violent/disturbing content, sexual content, graphic nudity, language and brief drug content)

Running time: 1:42

How to watch: In theaters July 30

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