Consider this a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit has now made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like conventional body horror, but inside Together exists a profound meditation about the ways we decide to love each other.
A Debut Feature Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have been together for ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a special spark to their roles, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The story begins when Millie and Tim move from the metropolis to the country for her career. A familiar narrative setup, sure, but that’s mostly where the conventions conclude. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their new home, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim tumble into an underground cave. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past simple connection.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying fright fest, interspersing bits of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of completely losing his sense of self in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
The couple confront the type of challenges that arise in most partnerships after ten years. At their core, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor never feels clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements present a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale inspire anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your significant other and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform now.
