Here's a challenge for long-term couples who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and stream Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. At first glance, it may seem like typical body horror, but inside Together resides a intense contemplation about the ways we decide to love each other.
An Introductory Film Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have been together for over ten years. United in marriage in real life in 2017, the two stars bring a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative begins when the couple move from the big city to the countryside for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, of course, but that’s primarily where the conventions conclude. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists discover an underground cave. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the duo. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The whole movie is a slow burn fright fest, weaving in elements of dreamlike terrors, gross (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and distant from his network of friends. He fears the concept of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he can’t drive and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
The couple face the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their bond.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these concerns of codependency and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the metaphor never feels hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Conversely, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could act as a great barometer of how you think about commitment. Will the ending sow anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your other half and state, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can embark on right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu at present.
