Here's a test for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate scary movies: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. Outwardly, it could look like conventional body horror, but inside Together exists a deep meditation about our choices in loving each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have been together for a decade. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their roles, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative begins when Millie and Tim transition from the big city to the countryside for her career. A commonly used narrative setup, sure, but that’s largely where the tropes end. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a strange force starts to affect the couple. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The entire film is a methodically building horror experience, blending bits of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes during something disturbing). The director orchestrates these parts neatly and wraps them up in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is solely the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and far away from his network of friends. He is terrified of the concept of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is intensified by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together never makes either of his characters the definite antagonist.
The couple face the kind of problems that come with any relationship a decade in. Fundamentally, they still love one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these concerns of codependency and giving oneself over to a partner, the allegory does not come across as clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could function as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your significant other and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform at present.
