Here's a challenge for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your loved one and watch Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its online premiere on Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like typical physical horror, but within Together resides a intense contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together marks the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the actors contribute a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The plot commences when Tim and Millie transition from the urban environment to the rural area for Millie’s job. A commonly used narrative setup, sure, but that’s mostly where the conventions end. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence takes hold of the pair. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying horror experience, weaving in moments of fever-dream horrors, gross (but tastefully done) body horror, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes during something horrific). Michael Shanks orchestrates these parts seamlessly and presents them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they deftly portray countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is suffering due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his support system. He fears the notion of totally forfeiting his individual identity in another person. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he never makes one partner or the other the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie confront the sort of issues that are inherent in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the allegory does not come across as overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for staying single. Conversely, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply look at your partner and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu as of this moment.
