Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and view Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like conventional body horror, but within Together lies a intense meditation about our choices in loving each other.
A Debut Feature Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The story begins when Millie and Tim move from the big city to the rural area for her career. A commonly used story element, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the tropes end. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While trekking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and the two discover an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence starts to affect the pair. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The complete narrative is a methodically building of scares, blending bits of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but never too gross) body horror, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits slowly bubbles to the surface.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and removed from his network of friends. He is terrified of the concept of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is amplified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie grapple with the sort of issues that come with any relationship after ten years. Deep down, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could function as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the ending plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply turn to your other half and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu at present.
