Consider this a test for long-term couples who appreciate horror films: Sit down with your significant other and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit recently had its online premiere on the Hulu service. On the surface, it might appear like conventional body horror, but inside Together exists a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for a decade. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their characters, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story begins when Tim and Millie transition from the urban environment to the rural area for Millie’s job. A commonly used plot device, sure, but that’s mostly where the cliches end. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their country house, a storm hits, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence 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 fright fest, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and presents them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and far away from his social circle. He is terrified of the idea of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together refrains from painting either of his characters the definite antagonist.
The couple face the kind of problems that are inherent in most partnerships after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their bond.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the allegory does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for staying single. Meanwhile, some couples experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could act as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply look at your partner and state, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu at present.
