Consider this a dare for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Sit down with your partner and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its online premiere on Hulu. Outwardly, it could look like standard biological terror, but inside Together resides a profound examination about our choices in loving each other.
A Debut Feature Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for a decade. Having wed in actuality in 2017, the actors contribute a unique chemistry to their characters, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when the couple relocate from the big city to the country for her career. A commonly used story element, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the conventions end. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their country house, a storm hits, and the protagonists tumble into an underground cave. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying horror experience, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director orchestrates these parts expertly and presents them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is suffering due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and distant from his social circle. He fears the concept of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie face the type of challenges that come with most partnerships a decade in. Deep down, they have affection for one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these anxieties of codependency and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism does not come across as hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama work together 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 enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that single viewers have seen the movie as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply look at your partner and say, “I understand that choice”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
