Consider this a challenge for long-term couples who are fans of scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and view Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like typical body horror, but within Together lies a profound meditation about our choices in loving one another.
An Introductory Film Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The story commences when the couple move from the urban environment to the country for her career. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their country house, a tempest descends, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a supernatural entity begins influencing the pair. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying fright fest, weaving in elements of dreamlike terrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director orchestrates these parts expertly and wraps them up in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is only the two lead actors, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his floundering music career inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his support system. He dreads the notion of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is amplified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in Together avoids making one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the sort of issues that come with most partnerships a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their bond.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the allegory avoids being hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Meanwhile, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your partner and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu now.
