Here's a dare for long-term couples who are fans of the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and view Together. The 2025 indie hit has now made its online premiere on the Hulu service. At first glance, it may seem like conventional biological terror, but inside Together exists a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for ten years. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, the two stars bring a unique chemistry to their roles, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The story starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes cease. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the duo. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in moments of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes during something disturbing). The director weaves these elements together neatly and delivers them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to chase only his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions 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 current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of codependency and totally devoting oneself to another person, the symbolism never feels hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a perfect parallel to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Meanwhile, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the ending inspire anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your significant other and state, “We could get through that together”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can undertake today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu now.
