Consider this a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and view Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it might appear like conventional physical horror, but within Together lies a deep meditation about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together is the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The plot begins when Tim and Millie transition from the metropolis to the countryside for professional reasons. A familiar narrative setup, sure, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their country house, a tempest descends, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence starts to affect the duo. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing elements of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and delivers them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is waning due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his support system. He is terrified of the idea of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he can’t drive and relies on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie refrains from painting either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the sort of issues that are inherent in any relationship over a long period. At their core, they still love one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism avoids being clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your partner and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can experience right now.
Together is streaming on Hulu at present.
