We present a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Sit down with your loved one and view Together. The independent film success of 2025 has now made its streaming debut via Hulu. Outwardly, it might appear like standard physical horror, but inside Together lies a deep contemplation about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a particular energy to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The story commences when Millie and Tim move from the metropolis to the rural area for professional reasons. A commonly used narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the conventions end. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence takes hold of the duo. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying fright fest, weaving in elements of dreamlike terrors, gross (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous interactions (sometimes during something grotesque). The director weaves these elements together neatly and wraps them up in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his support system. He dreads the notion of completely losing his individual identity in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for mobility.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie refrains from painting Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Both characters grapple with the sort of issues that come with long-term unions after ten years. Fundamentally, they still love each other. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these fears of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the metaphor does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could function as a great barometer of how you think about commitment. Will the ending plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your partner and say, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu at present.
