Consider this a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its streaming debut via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like conventional body horror, but within Together exists a deep meditation about our choices in loving our partners.
An Introductory Film Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for a decade. United in marriage in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a unique chemistry to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The plot starts when Millie and Tim transition from the metropolis to the rural area for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical story element, of course, but that’s largely where the conventions conclude. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their new home, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim tumble into an underground cave. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing elements of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts expertly and presents them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and removed from his social circle. He dreads the notion of completely losing his individual identity in another person. This fear is intensified by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he never makes Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Both characters grapple with the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of codependency and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the allegory does not come across as overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. On the other hand, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a great barometer of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion inspire anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your other half and state, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can experience at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu at present.
