We present a challenge 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 launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like standard body horror, but inside Together lies a intense contemplation about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together marks the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have stayed together for a decade. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, the actors contribute a special spark to their portrayals, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The narrative starts when Tim and Millie transition from the big city to the country for professional reasons. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim fall 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 creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The entire film is a methodically building horror experience, weaving in moments of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and presents them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and far away from his support system. He dreads the notion of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is amplified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
The couple face the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they still love each other. They share moments of joy, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these anxieties of excessive reliance and fully committing to another person, the metaphor does not come across as hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama work together symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a strong argument for avoiding commitment. Conversely, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your partner and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
