Consider this a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Sit down with your significant other and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its online premiere on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it could look like conventional biological terror, but beneath Together lies a intense examination about how we choose to love our partners.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have been together for a decade. Married in actuality in 2017, the actors contribute a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The plot begins when Millie and Tim move from the big city to the countryside for professional reasons. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the cliches end. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Paranormal Spark
While trekking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing moments of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and wraps them up in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Layered Performances
A large part 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 sense of connection is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and far away from his social circle. He fears the concept of completely losing his sense of self in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie avoids making Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
The couple grapple with the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their bond.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the allegory does not come across as hamfisted or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a strong argument for avoiding commitment. Meanwhile, 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 function as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the finale sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your other half and say, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
