Consider this a challenge for long-term couples who are fans of the horror genre: Settle in with your loved one and watch Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its online premiere on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like standard body horror, but inside Together resides a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have stayed together for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their characters, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The story begins when Tim and Millie transition from the big city to the rural area for Millie’s job. A commonly used narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists fall into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the pair. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past simple connection.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending moments of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes during something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is solely the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is waning 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 inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and far away from his social circle. He fears the notion of totally forfeiting his sense of self in another person. This fear is amplified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie avoids making Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Both characters grapple with the sort of issues that are inherent in long-term unions a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their bond.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to another person, the metaphor never feels clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have understood the narrative as a powerful case for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the finale plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your other half and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can embark on right now.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
