Consider this a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy horror films: Settle in with your significant other and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it may seem like standard body horror, but beneath Together lies a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars 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 ten years. Married in reality in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their roles, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The narrative commences when Tim and Millie move from the metropolis to the country for Millie’s job. A commonly used narrative setup, of course, but that’s primarily where the tropes conclude. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and the two discover an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence takes hold of the couple. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying horror experience, weaving in elements of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is waning due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and far away from his network of friends. He fears the idea of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie refrains from painting Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Both characters face the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they still love one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism does not come across as clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that single viewers have understood the narrative as a powerful case for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the finale 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 turn to your other half and state, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can experience today.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform now.
