Here's a test for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Settle in with your loved one and view Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its online premiere on Hulu. On the surface, it could look like typical body horror, but inside Together exists a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love one another.
An Introductory Film Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together marks the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have stayed together for ten years. Married in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The story starts when Millie and Tim transition from the metropolis to the countryside for Millie’s job. A commonly used plot device, of course, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim discover an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence begins influencing the pair. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending elements of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something horrific). Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is solely the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a emotional and physical gap. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and distant from his support system. He dreads the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in another person. This fear is intensified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie refrains from painting one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
The couple confront the sort of issues that arise in long-term unions after ten years. Deep down, they still love each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these fears of codependency and totally devoting oneself to another person, the allegory never feels overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for remaining unattached. On the other hand, some couples having disagreements found that the film actually helped them make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could function as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply turn to your partner and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can experience at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu now.
