Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate the horror genre: Settle in with your significant other and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit recently had its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like conventional physical horror, but beneath Together resides a intense contemplation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together marks the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The story commences when Millie and Tim relocate from the metropolis to the countryside for professional reasons. A commonly used plot device, of course, but that’s largely where the tropes cease. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim discover an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity takes hold of the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a slow burn horror experience, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes amidst something horrific). The director weaves these elements together seamlessly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is only the two lead actors, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision in Together refrains from painting Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that are inherent in long-term unions after ten years. At their core, they have affection for each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these concerns of excessive reliance and fully committing to another person, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a perfect parallel to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could function as a great barometer of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your partner and say, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu now.
