Consider this a dare for partners in committed relationships who enjoy scary movies: Settle in with your significant other and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. At first glance, it may seem like standard body horror, but beneath Together resides a intense examination about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, the actors bring a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The plot commences when Millie and Tim transition from the metropolis to the country for her career. A familiar plot device, sure, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night 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 well past simple connection.
The whole movie is a slow burn horror experience, blending moments of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes amidst something horrific). Michael Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and far away from his support system. He fears the notion of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in another person. This fear is amplified by the fact he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together never makes either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie grapple with the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions over a long period. At their core, they still love one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor never feels clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. Conversely, certain partners having disagreements found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply look at your partner and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
