Here's a test for long-term couples who are fans of scary movies: Settle in with your loved one and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its streaming debut on Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like typical physical horror, but inside Together exists a profound contemplation about our choices in loving each other.
A Debut Feature Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for a decade. United in marriage in reality in 2017, the actors bring a particular energy to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The plot starts when the couple relocate from the metropolis to the countryside for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, sure, but that’s primarily where the tropes cease. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their rural residence, a storm hits, and the two fall into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence starts to affect the duo. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a slow burn fright fest, interspersing bits of fever-dream horrors, gross (but never too gross) body horror, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and far away from his support system. He fears the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the sort of issues that arise in most partnerships a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their bond.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these concerns of codependency and fully committing to another person, the symbolism does not come across as hamfisted or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a brilliant analogue to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that single viewers have seen the movie as a strong argument for staying single. On the other hand, some couples having disagreements found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply look at your other half and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can embark on today.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
