Consider this a challenge for long-term couples who appreciate horror films: Settle in with your partner and view Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it may seem like conventional biological terror, but beneath Together exists a deep contemplation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have been together for ten years. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, the two stars contribute a unique chemistry to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The narrative commences when the couple transition from the big city to the rural area for her career. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the tropes conclude. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their new home, a storm hits, and the protagonists tumble into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity takes hold of the pair. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The whole movie is a slow burn of scares, interspersing moments of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is only the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and distant from his support system. He is terrified of the notion of completely losing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together never makes one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple face the kind of problems that are inherent in most partnerships after ten years. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They still laugh together, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these fears of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to another person, the allegory avoids being hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply turn to your significant other and say, “We could get through that together”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake right now.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
