Consider this a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its streaming debut on Hulu. On the surface, it might appear like typical body horror, but beneath Together exists a profound contemplation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together marks the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for ten years. United in marriage in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story commences when the couple move from the urban environment to the country for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim tumble into an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the pair. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The entire film is a methodically building horror experience, blending bits of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). The director skillfully blends these components seamlessly and delivers them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is solely the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and removed from his social circle. He dreads the notion of completely losing his sense of self in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie refrains from painting one partner or the other the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie confront the sort of issues that come with long-term unions a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of excessive reliance and fully committing to another person, the metaphor does not come across as clumsy or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that single viewers have interpreted the film as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Conversely, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion inspire anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your partner and say, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can embark on today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu as of this moment.
