Here's a test for long-term couples who are fans of horror films: Sit down with your significant other and view Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its online premiere via Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like typical biological terror, but inside Together lies a deep meditation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, partners that have been together for over ten years. United in marriage in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when the couple relocate from the big city to the countryside for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, of course, but that’s largely where the conventions cease. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a storm hits, and the two fall into an underground cave. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending bits of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and presents them in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of totally forfeiting his sense of self in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in Together never makes one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple face the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They share moments of joy, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the allegory never feels hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have understood the narrative as a strong argument for avoiding commitment. Conversely, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion plant anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your significant other and state, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform at present.
