Here's a dare for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of the horror genre: Get comfortable with your loved one and view Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its online premiere on Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like typical body horror, but beneath Together lies a profound examination about how we choose to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together is the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. United in marriage in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The plot begins when Tim and Millie move from the metropolis to the rural area for Millie’s job. A familiar narrative setup, sure, but that’s mostly where the cliches conclude. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their country house, a storm hits, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a strange force begins influencing the pair. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing moments of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something disturbing). The director skillfully blends these components neatly and wraps them up in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he can’t drive and relies on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie avoids making either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the kind of problems that come with most partnerships over a long period. At their core, they still love each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of codependency and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism does not come across as hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a perfect parallel to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that single viewers have understood the narrative as a powerful case for staying single. Meanwhile, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is available to watch on Hulu now.
