We present a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate scary movies: Get comfortable with your significant other and view Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its online premiere on the Hulu service. On the surface, it might appear like typical body horror, but within Together exists a deep examination about how we choose to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have stayed together for over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the two stars contribute a special spark to their roles, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The story starts when Millie and Tim move from the big city to the rural area for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, of course, but that’s largely where the tropes end. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their country house, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence takes hold of the couple. This force compels a otherworldly bond between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The whole movie is a slow burn fright fest, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Michael Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and presents them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and removed from his social circle. He dreads the notion of totally forfeiting his individual identity in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie confront the kind of problems that arise in most partnerships a decade in. Deep down, they continue to care for one another. They find humor with each other, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the metaphor avoids being hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements present a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have seen the movie as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, some couples experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your other half and utter, “I understand that choice”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu at present.
