Consider this a test for partners in committed relationships who enjoy the horror genre: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its online premiere on Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like standard body horror, but inside Together resides a intense contemplation about how we choose to love each other.
An Introductory Film Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, partners that have been together for ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, the actors bring a particular energy to their roles, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative begins when Tim and Millie relocate from the metropolis to the country for professional reasons. A familiar narrative setup, sure, but that’s largely where the cliches cease. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a strange force takes hold of the pair. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The complete narrative is a slow burn horror experience, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director weaves these elements together neatly and presents them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and far away from his support system. He dreads the notion of totally forfeiting his individual identity in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs 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 confront the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions after ten years. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They find humor with each other, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their bond.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism never feels clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a powerful case for staying single. On the other hand, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply look at your significant other and state, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform at present.
