Consider this a dare for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its online premiere on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it could look like typical physical horror, but inside Together lies a deep examination about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features 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 actors bring a unique chemistry to their characters, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The plot commences when Millie and Tim move from the urban environment to the country for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the cliches end. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the two fall into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence takes hold of the pair. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying horror experience, interspersing moments of fever-dream horrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes during something disturbing). The director orchestrates these parts seamlessly and wraps them up in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he avoids making Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Both characters face the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the metaphor never feels hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a powerful case for staying single. On the other hand, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could act as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion inspire anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply look at your other half and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform now.
