Consider this a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of scary movies: Get comfortable with your significant other and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. On the surface, it may seem like conventional physical horror, but inside Together lies a profound meditation about our choices in loving each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together marks the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for ten years. Married in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their roles, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story commences when Tim and Millie move from the metropolis to the countryside for her career. A familiar story element, of course, but that’s mostly where the tropes cease. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their new home, a storm hits, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a strange force starts to affect the pair. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in elements of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something horrific). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate countless layers to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a emotional and physical gap. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and removed from his support system. He dreads the idea of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is amplified by the reality he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in Together avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
The couple confront the sort of issues that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. At their core, they have affection for one another. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the metaphor never feels clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights work together symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Conversely, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could function as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply turn to your other half and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can embark on today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu at present.
