Consider this a test for partners in committed relationships who enjoy scary movies: Sit down with your significant other and view Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its online premiere on the Hulu service. At first glance, it might appear like typical physical horror, but inside Together exists a deep contemplation about our choices in loving each other.
A Directorial Debut Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for ten years. Married in actuality in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their roles, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The narrative starts when Millie and Tim transition from the big city to the rural area for her career. A familiar narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the conventions cease. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim discover an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a supernatural entity starts to affect the duo. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past simple connection.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in moments of fever-dream horrors, gross (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in Millie. This fear is amplified by the fact he can’t drive and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision in Together avoids making Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
The couple confront the kind of problems that are inherent in most partnerships over a long period. Fundamentally, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of excessive reliance and fully committing to another person, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for staying single. On the other hand, certain partners having disagreements found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the finale sow anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply look at your significant other and say, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can experience at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform now.
