Here's a challenge for long-term couples who are fans of horror films: Get comfortable with your partner and stream Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its online premiere on Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like conventional body horror, but within Together lies a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love one another.
An Introductory Film Investigating Partnership Complexities
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, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for ten years. United in marriage in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The narrative commences when Tim and Millie transition from the big city to the countryside for her career. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the tropes cease. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim fall into an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the pair. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a slow burn of scares, weaving in moments of fever-dream horrors, gross (but tastefully done) body horror, and authentically humorous interactions (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and delivers them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and distant from his social circle. He fears the notion of totally forfeiting his sense of self in his partner. This fear is intensified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.
Both characters face the type of challenges that come with most partnerships after ten years. Deep down, they have affection for each other. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the metaphor never feels overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a strong argument for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply look at your partner and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can undertake right now.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu at present.
