Here's a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy the horror genre: Get comfortable with your partner and stream Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its streaming debut via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like conventional physical horror, but beneath Together lies a intense contemplation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for a decade. United in marriage in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a special spark to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The plot begins when Millie and Tim transition from the urban environment to the countryside for professional reasons. A familiar story element, of course, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. 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 storm hits, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the pair. This force compels a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The entire film is a slow burn fright fest, interspersing moments of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but never too gross) body horror, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes during something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and presents them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is solely the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his floundering music career inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and distant from his social circle. He is terrified of the concept of completely losing his sense of self in another person. This fear is amplified by the reality he can’t drive and needs Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he never makes one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple confront the kind of problems that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. At their core, they have affection for one another. They find humor with each other, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the metaphor never feels overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for remaining unattached. On the other hand, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could act as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your other half and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
