We present a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its streaming debut via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like typical biological terror, but beneath Together exists a profound contemplation about our choices in loving our partners.
An Introductory Film Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, partners that have stayed together for a decade. United in marriage in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their roles, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The plot starts when the couple move from the metropolis to the country for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes end. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The entire film is a slow burn of scares, interspersing moments of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous interactions (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and presents them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie refrains from painting Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
The couple grapple with the sort of issues that come with long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the metaphor avoids being overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal work together symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for staying single. Conversely, some couples having disagreements found that the film actually helped them make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your partner and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can experience at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu as of this moment.
