Here's a dare for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of the horror genre: Settle in with your significant other and view Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its streaming debut on Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like typical body horror, but within Together lies a deep meditation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Directorial Debut Delving into Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It showcases Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for a decade. Married in actuality in 2017, the actors infuse a particular energy to their characters, masterfully depicting both the joys and frustrations of a enduring union.
The narrative commences when the couple relocate from the urban environment to the rural area for Millie’s job. A familiar narrative setup, of course, but that’s primarily where the tropes cease. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing elements of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something horrific). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships over a long period. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to a partner, the allegory avoids being overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a brilliant analogue to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a powerful case for remaining unattached. On the other hand, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your partner and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can undertake right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform at present.
