Here's a challenge for long-term couples who appreciate horror films: Sit down with your partner and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit recently had its streaming debut on Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like typical body horror, but beneath Together exists a intense contemplation about how we choose to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for ten years. Married in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their portrayals, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when the couple relocate from the urban environment to the rural area for her career. A commonly used narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the conventions cease. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their new home, a storm hits, and the two discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a strange force takes hold of the pair. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past simple connection.
The entire film is a methodically building of scares, interspersing bits of fever-dream horrors, gross (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts expertly and delivers them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is waning due to a emotional and physical gap. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he never makes Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie face the type of challenges that are inherent in any relationship a decade in. At their core, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these fears of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the symbolism avoids being hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a brilliant analogue to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the ending inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your other half and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can experience today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
