Here's a test for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Settle in with your partner and view Together. This 2025 indie hit just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like typical physical horror, but beneath Together exists a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for a decade. Having wed in actuality in 2017, the two stars infuse a particular energy to their portrayals, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story starts when the couple relocate from the urban environment to the rural area for her career. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their new home, a storm hits, and the two tumble into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a strange force starts to affect the couple. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The whole movie is a methodically building of scares, weaving in bits of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director orchestrates these parts expertly and presents them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is waning due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and distant from his support system. He is terrified of the concept of totally forfeiting his sense of self in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he can’t drive and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes either of his characters the clear bad guy.
The couple face the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. Fundamentally, they continue to care for one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the allegory does not come across as clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, some couples having disagreements found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could act as a great barometer of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can embark on today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu now.
