We present a dare for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and view Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its online premiere on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it might appear like standard body horror, but inside Together exists a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their characters, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The plot begins when Millie and Tim move from the big city to the country for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, of course, but that’s primarily where the tropes conclude. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the two discover an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence takes hold of the pair. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in elements of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and delivers them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is only the two lead actors, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his support system. He fears the idea of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision is that he never makes either of his characters the obvious villain.
Both characters grapple with the type of challenges that arise in most partnerships after ten years. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism does not come across as overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements present a perfect parallel to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Conversely, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could function as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your other half and say, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can undertake today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu as of this moment.
