Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of the horror genre: Get comfortable with your significant other and view Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its streaming debut via Hulu. Outwardly, it might appear like standard biological terror, but within Together lies a intense examination about how we choose to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together marks the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their roles, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The plot begins when the couple move from the metropolis to the country for Millie’s job. A commonly used story element, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the conventions cease. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a body horror flick.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their new home, a storm hits, and the two tumble into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a strange force takes hold of the couple. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying horror experience, interspersing elements of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and authentically humorous interactions (sometimes during something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and delivers them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is only the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and distant from his support system. He dreads the notion of completely losing his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is amplified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
The couple face the sort of issues that are inherent in most partnerships after ten years. Fundamentally, they have affection for each other. They share moments of joy, offer support, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the symbolism avoids being overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could function as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the finale sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply look at your partner and state, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
