Here's a test for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of scary movies: Sit down with your loved one and view Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its streaming debut via Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like conventional body horror, but within Together resides a deep examination about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Debut Feature Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The story starts when Millie and Tim move from the big city to the rural area for her career. A commonly used story element, sure, but that’s mostly where the conventions conclude. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim discover an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a supernatural entity begins influencing the duo. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes amidst something horrific). Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and distant from his support system. He fears the concept of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in another person. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple grapple with the type of challenges that arise in any relationship over a long period. Deep down, they still love each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these fears of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the symbolism avoids being overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the frights and the fights serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Conversely, some couples experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and say, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu now.
