Consider this a challenge for long-term couples who enjoy the horror genre: Get comfortable with your significant other and watch Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its online premiere on the Hulu service. At first glance, it may seem like typical biological terror, but inside Together lies a profound meditation about how we choose to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is 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 remained a couple for ten years. United in marriage in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The plot starts when the couple move from the urban environment to the countryside for her career. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim discover an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity takes hold of the pair. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The entire film is a slow burn of scares, blending moments of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something grotesque). The director skillfully blends these components expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray countless layers to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is amplified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for mobility.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie refrains from painting Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions a decade in. Deep down, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to a partner, the allegory never feels overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a perfect parallel to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your other half and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can experience at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform at present.
