Here's a challenge for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your significant other and watch Together. The independent film success of 2025 has now made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. At first glance, it might appear like conventional body horror, but inside Together lies a profound contemplation about how we choose to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together is the debut feature-length film 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. Married in real life in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The story starts when the couple transition from the big city to the country for her career. A commonly used plot device, sure, but that’s largely where the conventions conclude. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence begins influencing the pair. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The whole movie is a slow burn of scares, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director skillfully blends these components seamlessly and delivers them in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is suffering due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his network of friends. He fears the idea of completely losing his individual identity in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple face the kind of problems that arise in any relationship a decade in. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They find humor with each other, offer support, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these fears of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism never feels hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the frights and the fights work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that single viewers have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Conversely, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could act as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your other half and state, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform now.
