Here's a challenge for long-term couples who enjoy horror films: Settle in with your significant other and watch Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like standard body horror, but beneath Together lies a deep meditation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Debut Feature Delving into Relationship Dynamics
Together marks the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, the two stars contribute a particular energy to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a enduring union.
The plot commences when the couple transition from the metropolis to the rural area for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the conventions cease. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence starts to affect the duo. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a methodically building of scares, blending bits of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). The director skillfully blends these components expertly and presents them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and far away from his social circle. He dreads the notion of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in his partner. This fear is intensified by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie avoids making Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie face the kind of problems that come with any relationship after ten years. Deep down, they still love one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these fears of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to a partner, the symbolism avoids being overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could function as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply look at your partner and state, “We could get through that together”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform at present.
