Consider this a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy the horror genre: Settle in with your significant other and view Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its online premiere via Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like standard physical horror, but inside Together lies a deep examination about our choices in loving our partners.
A Debut Feature Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for a decade. Having wed in real life in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their roles, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The story begins when Millie and Tim move from the urban environment to the countryside for Millie’s job. A familiar narrative setup, of course, but that’s primarily where the tropes conclude. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their new home, a storm hits, and the two tumble into an underground cave. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a supernatural entity starts to affect the duo. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past simple connection.
The whole movie is a methodically building of scares, weaving in bits of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and far away from his network of friends. He fears the notion of totally forfeiting his sense of self in his partner. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he refrains from painting one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
The couple face the sort of issues that come with most partnerships over a long period. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these fears of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the allegory never feels clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal work together symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. Conversely, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply look at your other half and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu as of this moment.
