Here's a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it might appear like conventional physical horror, but beneath Together lies a deep meditation about the ways we decide to love each other.
An Introductory Film Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for over ten years. Married in real life in 2017, the actors infuse a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The plot starts when Millie and Tim relocate from the urban environment to the country for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, sure, but that’s mostly where the conventions end. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the two fall into an underground cave. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence takes hold of the duo. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending bits of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and presents them in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits slowly bubbles to the surface.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and far away from his support system. He is terrified of the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in his partner. This fear is amplified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together refrains from painting either of his characters the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie confront the type of challenges that arise in most partnerships after ten years. At their core, they still love one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the metaphor never feels overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that single viewers have interpreted the film as a powerful case for staying single. On the other hand, some couples experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your partner and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
