We present a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Sit down with your partner and watch Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like standard body horror, but inside Together resides a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Debut Feature Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars 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 a decade. United in marriage in reality in 2017, the two stars contribute a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The plot begins when Tim and Millie relocate from the big city to the rural area for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, sure, but that’s largely where the cliches cease. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their new home, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim discover an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, blending elements of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes amidst something disturbing). The director weaves these elements together seamlessly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and far away from his social circle. He dreads the notion of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision in Together never makes one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Both characters grapple with the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions after ten years. Deep down, they continue to care for one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the metaphor does not come across as clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights work together symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a compelling reason for staying single. Conversely, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could function as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the ending inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your partner and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform now.
