Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like standard biological terror, but inside Together resides a profound meditation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for a decade. United in marriage in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a special spark to their characters, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The story begins when Millie and Tim relocate from the urban environment to the country for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes conclude. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim tumble into an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a strange force takes hold of the duo. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, blending moments of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and presents them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and far away from his network of friends. He is terrified of the notion of completely losing his sense of self in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he refrains from painting either of his characters the definite antagonist.
Both characters grapple with the sort of issues that come with long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these fears of codependency and totally devoting oneself to another person, the allegory avoids being overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the frights and the fights work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Meanwhile, some couples experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your other half and state, “I understand that choice”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu at present.
