We present a dare for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and view Together. The 2025 indie hit recently had its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like conventional body horror, but beneath Together lies a deep meditation about our choices in loving our partners.
A Debut Feature Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together marks the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for a decade. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, the actors infuse a particular energy to their roles, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when the couple transition from the big city to the countryside for her career. A familiar story element, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the tropes conclude. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim fall into an underground cave. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence begins influencing the pair. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a methodically building of scares, weaving in bits of fever-dream horrors, gross (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and presents them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is waning due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and distant from his social circle. He fears the idea of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in Millie. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for mobility.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie avoids making Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that are inherent in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they still love one another. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these fears of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor does not come across as overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. Reports indicate that single viewers have understood the narrative as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the ending plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu at present.
