Here's a test for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Settle in with your loved one and view Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. Outwardly, it might appear like standard body horror, but within Together resides a profound examination about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their portrayals, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story starts when the couple transition from the urban environment to the countryside for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes conclude. Together becomes 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 trekking near their new home, a storm hits, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the duo. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The whole movie is a methodically building of scares, weaving in elements of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes amidst something horrific). The director skillfully blends these components neatly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of completely losing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is amplified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together avoids making one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters grapple with the kind of problems that come with long-term unions after ten years. Deep down, they still love one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these anxieties of codependency and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the allegory avoids being clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements present a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Conversely, some couples having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could act as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the ending sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply look at your partner and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform now.
