We present a dare for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate scary movies: Sit down with your significant other and view Together. The independent film success of 2025 has now made its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. On the surface, it could look like standard body horror, but inside Together resides a deep examination about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for a decade. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their portrayals, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when Tim and Millie transition from the metropolis to the countryside for professional reasons. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the conventions cease. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their country house, a storm hits, and the two tumble into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence starts to affect the duo. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in elements of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie never makes Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Both characters grapple with the kind of problems that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these anxieties of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to another person, the metaphor does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion inspire anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your significant other and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu now.
