Here's a challenge for long-term couples who are fans of the horror genre: Get comfortable with your significant other and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its streaming debut via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like standard biological terror, but inside Together resides a deep meditation about the ways we decide to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for over ten years. Married in actuality in 2017, the actors contribute a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The story starts when Millie and Tim relocate from the big city to the rural area for professional reasons. A familiar plot device, sure, but that’s mostly where the cliches conclude. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim tumble into an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a strange force begins influencing the duo. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The whole movie is a slow burn horror experience, weaving in bits of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but never too gross) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He fears the idea of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple confront the sort of issues that come with most partnerships after ten years. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these fears of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the allegory does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a strong argument for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, some couples experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could function as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale sow anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your significant other and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
