Consider this a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and view Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its online premiere on Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like standard biological terror, but inside Together lies a deep contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features 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, Franco and Brie infuse a particular energy to their characters, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The plot starts when Millie and Tim move from the metropolis to the rural area for her career. A somewhat stereotypical story element, sure, but that’s largely where the conventions cease. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim fall into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a methodically building horror experience, interspersing moments of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes amidst something horrific). The director orchestrates these parts seamlessly and delivers them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his social circle. He fears the idea of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in another person. This fear is amplified by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and is dependent on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together never makes either of his characters the definite antagonist.
The couple face the kind of problems that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their bond.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these concerns of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor never feels overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer 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 left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for staying single. On the other hand, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your other half and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can embark on today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform now.
