We present a challenge for long-term couples who appreciate horror films: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. At first glance, it may seem like standard body horror, but inside Together exists a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love each other.
A Debut Feature Delving into Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for a decade. United in marriage in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their characters, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The plot commences when Millie and Tim transition from the urban environment to the countryside for her career. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the tropes end. Together transforms 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 walking near their country house, a storm hits, and the two tumble into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, gross (but never too gross) body horror, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is suffering due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his support system. He fears the notion of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie never makes either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie confront the type of challenges that come with long-term unions a decade in. Deep down, they still love each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the symbolism avoids being overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Reports indicate that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could act as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion plant anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply look at your partner and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can embark on today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform now.
