Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who are fans of scary movies: Sit down with your loved one and stream Together. This independent film success of 2025 just made its streaming debut via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like standard body horror, but inside Together lies a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for a decade. Married in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their roles, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The narrative starts when the couple transition from the metropolis to the rural area for her career. A familiar narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the conventions end. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their country house, a storm hits, and the protagonists fall into an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence begins influencing the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The whole movie is a slow burn horror experience, weaving in moments of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director weaves these elements together seamlessly and delivers them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is waning due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to chase only his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and distant from his network of friends. He fears the concept of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is intensified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that come with most partnerships after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They still laugh together, offer support, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these concerns of codependency and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the allegory never feels hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a strong argument for remaining unattached. On the other hand, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your significant other and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can embark on right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
