Here's a dare for long-term couples who appreciate horror films: Sit down with your partner and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 recently had its online premiere on the Hulu service. At first glance, it might appear like standard biological terror, but beneath Together exists a intense contemplation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Directorial Debut Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together is the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for a decade. Married in real life in 2017, the two stars infuse a special spark to their roles, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The plot commences when the couple move from the urban environment to the country for professional reasons. A familiar narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the conventions end. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim discover an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The entire film is a slow burn of scares, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but tastefully done) body horror, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something horrific). The director skillfully blends these components seamlessly and delivers them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and removed from his network of friends. He is terrified of the idea of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie avoids making one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
The couple grapple with the kind of problems that come with any relationship a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these anxieties of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the symbolism does not come across as clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. Reports indicate that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply look at your significant other and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can undertake right now.
Together is streaming on Hulu at present.
