TOGETHER (2025) - Mark Reviews Movies

Together, Neon

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 29, 2025

The scariest part of Together might be that Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie) don't make a good couple in the first place. They're both wondering if that's the case from the start of writer/director Michael Shanks' horror tale, which sees the two moving from the city to a small town, realizing they're now stuck together, and having a mysterious encounter in a cavern that results in them literally sticking together.

Franco and Brie being married in real life probably does help us see some romantic connection between these two characters, even though they are suspicious of or can't seem to stand each other for most of the film. That indescribable quality known as on-screen chemistry definitely exists here, but they're also aware enough as actors to try to shun that real-world connection at almost every turn.

Tim and Millie are at that kind of point in their relationship. Yes, they love each other deeply, having been a couple for about a decade, but ten years or so is also a long time, during which a relationship and the people within it change. Those shifts might even be imperceptible to the two, since they're right in the middle of it all.

Shanks' screenplay throws us right into the middle of the relationship and the story, too. The couple is throwing a farewell party for all their city-based friends and acquaintances. Millie has taken a job at a middle school in the country, which she's looking forward to as a quiet and reserved kind of person, and our first glimpse of Tim is seeing him in a state of near-dread.

Tim's quite the opposite of his girlfriend or "partner," as the two usually say so as not to sound immature. He's in a band, still hoping for a big break while they do the occasional gig around the city, and since he never got a driver's license or a car of his own, going back to the city for those gigs will require him to rely on Millie, either to drive him to a show or to the local train station.

That's part of one big thing that has not-so-suddenly come between them. Tim puts it subtly or plainly a couple of times: He feels trapped, because everything he does or could do in and with his life now depends on Millie. Millie, of course, is on the other end of that dynamic: She doesn't want Tim to have to count on her for so much, but after a decade or so of supporting him in a dream that doesn't seem to be going anywhere, it might be cruel to simply tell him that it's time to, well, grow up.

There's a lot more happening between them, of course, as Millie mentions the couple hasn't had sex in months and it's not as if the tension between them is helping to create an amorous mood. In fact, they almost break up just before moving out to a house in the country, after Millie proposes in front of all of their friends and, after a long beat, Tim can only bring himself to ask if she's joking. The big question that Shanks has established with just prologue is a fundamental one: Do Tim and Millie want each other, because there's genuine love there, or do they need each other, in some sort of codependent state that neither one recognizes?

All of this setup is important to note, because the film is stronger for it. Shanks has given us a believable, identifiable relationship, so when the story soon enters the realm of the supernatural and the inexplicable, it possesses an emotional and psychological grounding to make the unbelievable feel just as authentic as and pertinent to the core of this bond and these characters.

It all starts after some more uncomfortable moments at the couple's new home. Tim finds dead rats above a light fixture, which reminds him of a story from his childhood and the awful fate of his parents. Millie wants to rekindle the flame between them, but since Tim has an upcoming gig to prepare for, he instead offers a hike in the woods nearby. From a prologue, we know another couple has gone missing in that forest and that a cavern within it led to an unnatural incident involving a pair of dogs. When Tim and Millie end up stuck in the cave, it's only a matter of time before something similar befalls them.

The problem, as the title suggests and the dogs show, is that Tim and Millie's bodies become increasingly drawn to each other like magnets. More than that, their skin seems to fuse, and as the pull becomes stronger, the urge to connect becomes harder to ignore or fight, while fusion goes further than skin-deep.

The visuals are horrifying, obviously, especially as the two have to struggle to disconnect (A scene of the couple in a public restroom will surely elicit sympathy pains from most and maybe form a new reason for anxiety in some) or find some other, mechanical means to aid the separation. More shocking, perhaps, is how unexpectedly funny some of this becomes, because of the physical comedy on display, as well as the fact that these characters are smart enough to recognize both what's happening and that the situation is a pretty clear metaphor for their relationship. Yes, it's frightening and painful for Tim and Millie, but they're still drawn to it for reasons they can't explain.

Shanks' gimmick, in other words, serves a dual purpose, and each component of it in Together is worthwhile. It's horrific, of course, but it also allows the filmmaker explore this relationship in a heightened way. Because he and the actors lay the groundwork so well, we're with the movie's every absurd but pointed turn.

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