Consider this a test for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your partner and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. At first glance, it might appear like typical physical horror, but inside Together exists a deep contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together is the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, partners that have remained a couple for a decade. Having wed in reality in 2017, the actors contribute a particular energy to their characters, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The plot starts when Tim and Millie move from the big city to the countryside for Millie’s job. A familiar story element, admittedly, but that’s largely where the cliches end. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The whole movie is a methodically building fright fest, blending bits of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and far away from his network of friends. He fears the concept of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in another person. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
The couple grapple with the type of challenges that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. At their core, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to another person, the allegory does not come across as hamfisted or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, 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 strong argument for staying single. Conversely, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the ending inspire anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your other half and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is available to watch on Hulu now.
