Here's a test for long-term couples who are fans of horror films: Get comfortable with your significant other and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like standard body horror, but beneath Together lies a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love each other.
An Introductory Film Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for ten years. United in marriage in reality in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their portrayals, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The story starts when Tim and Millie transition from the metropolis to the countryside for her career. A commonly used story element, sure, but that’s largely where the conventions end. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The whole movie is a methodically building fright fest, weaving in bits of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) body horror, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts expertly and presents them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is suffering due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his social circle. He fears the concept of completely losing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he can’t drive and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie refrains from painting one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple face the type of challenges that are inherent in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they still love each other. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism never feels clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal work together symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Conversely, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your significant other and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can experience today.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu at present.
