We present a test for partners in committed relationships who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit has now made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like conventional physical horror, but beneath Together resides a profound examination about how we choose to love each other.
An Introductory Film Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. Married in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a special spark to their roles, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The story starts when Tim and Millie transition from the metropolis to the country for her career. A somewhat stereotypical story element, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the conventions end. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their rural residence, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim tumble into an underground cave. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a supernatural entity takes hold of the pair. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a methodically building fright fest, blending bits of fever-dream horrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something horrific). The director weaves these elements together seamlessly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of completely losing his sense of self in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie refrains from painting one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, offer support, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor never feels overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Reports indicate that single viewers have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, some couples having disagreements found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply turn to your partner and say, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can undertake right now.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
