Here's a dare for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of the horror genre: Settle in with your partner and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like typical physical horror, but beneath Together exists a intense examination about how we choose to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together is the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the two stars bring a unique chemistry to their roles, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The plot begins when Tim and Millie relocate from the metropolis to the country for her career. A familiar story element, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the cliches conclude. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an underground cave. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a supernatural entity begins influencing the pair. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying horror experience, blending bits of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and delivers them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and distant from his network of friends. He fears the notion of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is intensified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision is that he never makes one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie face the sort of issues that come with any relationship after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They share moments of joy, offer support, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these anxieties of excessive reliance and fully committing to another person, the symbolism never feels clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a powerful case for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners who were in conflict 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 anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your other half and say, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience today.
Together is streaming on Hulu now.
