Here's a challenge for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its online premiere on Hulu. At first glance, it may seem like typical biological terror, but within Together resides a intense contemplation about our choices in loving each other.
A Debut Feature Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases 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 been together for a decade. Married in real life in 2017, the actors bring a unique chemistry to their characters, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The narrative begins when Tim and Millie transition from the metropolis to the rural area for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their country house, a tempest descends, and the two discover an underground cave. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence begins influencing the couple. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a methodically building horror experience, interspersing bits of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) body horror, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something grotesque). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and delivers them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is solely the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and removed from his network of friends. He is terrified of the notion of completely losing his individual identity in another person. This fear is amplified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision in Together never makes either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these concerns of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to another person, the allegory avoids being clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. On the other hand, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could function as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your significant other and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu now.
