Here's a dare for long-term couples who appreciate the horror genre: Get comfortable with your significant other and view Together. The 2025 indie hit has now made its online premiere on Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like typical biological terror, but beneath Together resides a profound contemplation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together is the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for a decade. Having wed in reality in 2017, the actors contribute a unique chemistry to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The plot begins when the couple move from the urban environment to the countryside for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the cliches end. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim discover an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity takes hold of the couple. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a slow burn of scares, interspersing bits of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and distant from his network of friends. He is terrified of the concept of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is amplified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together avoids making Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that arise in any relationship over a long period. Fundamentally, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these concerns of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the symbolism never feels hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that single viewers have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for staying single. Conversely, some couples having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion inspire anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your other half and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience right now.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
