Consider this a challenge for partners in committed relationships who are fans of scary movies: Sit down with your loved one and watch Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. Outwardly, it could look like typical biological terror, but within Together resides a deep meditation about our choices in loving each other.
A Debut Feature Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together is the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for a decade. Having wed in reality in 2017, the two stars contribute a special spark to their characters, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The plot starts when the couple move from the urban environment to the country for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, sure, but that’s primarily where the tropes end. Together evolves 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 country house, a storm hits, and the protagonists fall into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in bits of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes amidst something horrific). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they deftly portray countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and removed from his support system. He fears the notion of completely losing his sense of self in his partner. This fear is amplified by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together never makes one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie grapple with the sort of issues that come with long-term unions over a long period. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their bond.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the allegory never feels hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that single viewers have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could act as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the ending sow anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform now.
