Here's a test for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your loved one and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its streaming debut via Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like typical physical horror, but inside Together exists a profound meditation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have stayed together for a decade. Married in actuality in 2017, the two stars bring a particular energy to their characters, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The narrative begins when Millie and Tim relocate from the urban environment to the countryside for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical story element, admittedly, but that’s largely where the conventions cease. Together becomes 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 new home, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim fall into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence begins influencing the couple. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, weaving in elements of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and authentically humorous interactions (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). The director weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is only the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his struggling artistic pursuits slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and far away from his support system. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is amplified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple confront the sort of issues that arise in any relationship a decade in. At their core, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these fears of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the allegory does not come across as hamfisted or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for staying single. Meanwhile, some couples having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your partner and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
