Here's a dare for partners in committed relationships who appreciate horror films: Get comfortable with your loved one and stream Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its online premiere on Hulu. On the surface, it could look like conventional physical horror, but inside Together lies a profound meditation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together is the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It features 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 over ten years. United in marriage in real life in 2017, the actors infuse a particular energy to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The narrative starts when the couple relocate from the metropolis to the rural area for her career. A familiar story element, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes cease. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their new home, a storm hits, and the protagonists tumble into an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a strange force starts to affect the pair. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing elements of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and wraps them up in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is only the two lead actors, and they masterfully render countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and far away from his support system. He fears the idea of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he can’t drive and needs Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie confront the sort of issues that come with most partnerships over a long period. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They share moments of joy, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these concerns of codependency and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the symbolism avoids being overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. Meanwhile, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could act as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion sow anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your partner and state, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can undertake today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
