Here's a dare for long-term couples who are fans of the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and watch Together. The 2025 indie hit has now made its streaming debut on Hulu. On the surface, it could look like typical body horror, but inside Together lies a profound contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have been together for ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, the two stars infuse a special spark to their roles, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The plot starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the countryside for her career. A familiar narrative setup, sure, but that’s primarily where the conventions cease. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their new home, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim fall into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a strange force takes hold of the pair. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending bits of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) body horror, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and presents them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is only the two lead actors, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of completely losing his sense of self in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in Together avoids making Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
The couple grapple with the kind of problems that arise in most partnerships a decade in. Fundamentally, they continue to care for one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these anxieties of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor does not come across as hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in either protagonist 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 test you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
