Here's a challenge for long-term couples who enjoy horror films: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit recently had its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like typical physical horror, but within Together resides a deep contemplation about our choices in loving each other.
An Introductory Film Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have stayed together for over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when Millie and Tim move from the metropolis to the country for professional reasons. A commonly used narrative setup, sure, but that’s mostly where the tropes cease. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While trekking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a strange force starts to affect the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The whole movie is a methodically building horror experience, weaving in elements of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but tastefully done) body horror, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of completely losing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their bond.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and fully committing to another person, the symbolism does not come across as clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama serve the other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for staying single. Conversely, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending sow anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply look at your other half and state, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform at present.
