We present a test for partners in committed relationships who enjoy horror films: Sit down with your significant other and stream Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its online premiere via Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like conventional biological terror, but inside Together resides a profound examination about how we choose to love one another.
A Debut Feature Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together is the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have stayed together for ten years. Married in real life in 2017, the actors bring a unique chemistry to their roles, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the big city to the rural area for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim tumble into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence starts to affect the couple. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a slow burn horror experience, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and far away from his social circle. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is amplified by the fact he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making either of his characters the definite antagonist.
The couple face the sort of issues that arise in most partnerships over a long period. At their core, they still love one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism avoids being clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply look at your significant other and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience right now.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
