We present a dare for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Settle in with your significant other and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like typical biological terror, but inside Together lies a profound meditation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Delving into Relationship Dynamics
Together is the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for ten years. United in marriage in real life in 2017, the actors contribute a special spark to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when Tim and Millie move from the urban environment to the countryside for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, of course, but that’s primarily where the cliches conclude. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their rural residence, a storm hits, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence starts to affect the couple. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The complete narrative is a methodically building of scares, blending elements of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). The director weaves these elements together neatly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and removed from his support system. He is terrified of the idea of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together never makes one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the kind of problems that come with long-term unions a decade in. Deep down, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of codependency and giving oneself over to another person, the metaphor does not come across as overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the finale inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your other half and state, “We could get through that together”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu now.
