Consider this a dare for partners in committed relationships who enjoy horror films: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. The 2025 indie hit has now made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like typical body horror, but inside Together lies a profound meditation about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together marks the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when Tim and Millie move from the urban environment to the rural area for her career. A familiar plot device, sure, but that’s mostly where the conventions end. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While trekking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The whole movie is a slow burn fright fest, blending elements of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks orchestrates these parts seamlessly and presents them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths 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 hesitance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and far away from his social circle. He dreads the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and is dependent on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he refrains from painting one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
The couple face the sort of issues that are inherent in most partnerships over a long period. At their core, they still love one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these anxieties of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the allegory avoids being overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Conversely, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could function as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your other half and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can undertake today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu now.
