Consider this a challenge for long-term couples who are fans of horror films: Get comfortable with your partner and stream Together. The 2025 indie hit recently had its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like conventional physical horror, but within Together resides a intense contemplation about the ways we decide to love each other.
An Introductory Film Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker 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 over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The plot commences when the couple move from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A commonly used narrative setup, sure, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their rural residence, a storm hits, and the two fall into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence takes hold of the duo. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past simple connection.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying fright fest, interspersing moments of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but tastefully done) body horror, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). The director weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his support system. He fears the concept of completely losing his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision is that he refrains from painting Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
The couple face the type of challenges that are inherent in long-term unions over a long period. At their core, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the allegory does not come across as hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama serve the other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a strong argument for remaining unattached. On the other hand, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform at present.
