We present a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Settle in with your significant other and watch Together. The independent film success of 2025 has now made its streaming debut on Hulu. Outwardly, it might appear like standard body horror, but within Together exists a deep contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for a decade. United in marriage in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The plot begins when the couple transition from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A commonly used plot device, sure, but that’s primarily where the conventions conclude. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While trekking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the two discover an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a strange force takes hold of the pair. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past simple connection.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing moments of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is suffering due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and distant from his social circle. He fears the idea of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in Together avoids making Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie grapple with the kind of problems that arise in any relationship after ten years. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of codependency and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism avoids being clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Conversely, some couples having disagreements found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could function as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your other half and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can experience today.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu at present.
