Consider this a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy horror films: Get comfortable with your significant other and watch Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its streaming debut on Hulu. Outwardly, it could look like typical biological terror, but inside Together resides a deep meditation about our choices in loving each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their characters, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The plot starts when the couple move from the big city to the rural area for her career. A familiar plot device, sure, but that’s primarily where the tropes end. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an underground cave. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence starts to affect the duo. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The whole movie is a slow burn of scares, interspersing elements of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and presents them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is only the two lead actors, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is suffering due to a emotional and physical gap. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and removed from his support system. He is terrified of the notion of completely losing his individual identity in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he can’t drive and relies on Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together never makes either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the sort of issues that come with most partnerships over a long period. Deep down, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could function as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the ending sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your other half and say, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
