Consider this a challenge for long-term couples who enjoy horror films: Get comfortable with your significant other and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it may seem like typical physical horror, but within Together lies a profound meditation about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, the two stars infuse a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative begins when Millie and Tim relocate from the big city to the rural area for her career. A commonly used story element, sure, but that’s primarily where the cliches end. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence takes hold of the couple. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing elements of dreamlike terrors, gross (but tastefully done) body horror, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes during something disturbing). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and presents them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is suffering due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
The couple grapple with the sort of issues that are inherent in long-term unions 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 beneath it all, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to another person, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or self-important. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could function as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply turn to your other half and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform at present.
