Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your significant other and view Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its online premiere on the Hulu service. On the surface, it may seem like conventional biological terror, but inside Together lies a deep contemplation about how we choose to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Delving into Relationship Dynamics
Together is the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have stayed together for over ten years. Married in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their roles, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The narrative begins when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the countryside for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, sure, but that’s largely where the tropes conclude. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and the two discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a strange force takes hold of the couple. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The entire film is a slow burn fright fest, weaving in moments of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes during something disturbing). The director weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is suffering due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He fears the concept of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in Together never makes one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie confront the type of challenges that come with long-term unions over a long period. Fundamentally, they have affection for each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to a partner, the allegory avoids being hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a strong argument for avoiding commitment. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your significant other and state, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience today.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
