Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its online premiere on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it might appear like conventional body horror, but beneath Together lies a deep meditation about our choices in loving each other.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for a decade. United in marriage in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The plot starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the country for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes conclude. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and the two fall into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence starts to affect the pair. This force compels a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The entire film is a slow burn of scares, blending moments of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and presents them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Her self-assurance and emotional bond 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 inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and far away from his support system. He is terrified of the concept of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he refrains from painting Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie grapple with the type of challenges that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. Deep down, they have affection for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of codependency and fully committing to another person, the symbolism never feels hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have understood the narrative as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion plant anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your significant other and say, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu now.
