Here's a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy horror films: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it may seem like conventional physical horror, but beneath Together resides a profound examination about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together represents the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, the two stars infuse a particular energy to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the big city to the country for professional reasons. A commonly used story element, of course, but that’s mostly 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.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence begins influencing the couple. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past simple connection.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, blending moments of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks orchestrates these parts seamlessly 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 deftly portray manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a distance. 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 experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and far away from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is amplified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in Together avoids making one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie grapple with the kind of problems that arise in any relationship after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the symbolism does not come across as hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a brilliant analogue to the character-driven drama. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply look at your other half and state, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can experience right now.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu at present.
