Consider this a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of the horror genre: Settle in with your loved one and view Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its streaming debut on Hulu. Outwardly, it might appear like standard biological terror, but within Together resides a profound meditation about how we choose to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The narrative commences when Tim and Millie transition from the urban environment to the country for her career. A familiar plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the conventions conclude. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a strange force takes hold of the pair. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The entire film is a slow burn of scares, weaving in moments of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something horrific). Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and presents them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is waning due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his floundering music career gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his social circle. He is terrified of the notion of completely losing his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Both characters face the sort of issues that arise in most partnerships a decade in. At their core, they still love one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these anxieties of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism does not come across as clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the ending inspire 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 glance toward your partner and state, “I understand that choice”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can experience right now.
Together is streaming on Hulu at present.
