Consider this a challenge for partners in committed relationships who enjoy the horror genre: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its online premiere on Hulu. Outwardly, it could look like conventional physical horror, but beneath Together lies a profound examination about our choices in loving our partners.
A Debut Feature Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together marks the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The narrative begins when Tim and Millie relocate from the big city to the country for professional reasons. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes cease. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and the two discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence starts to affect the duo. This force compels a otherworldly bond between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a methodically building of scares, weaving in elements of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and authentically humorous interactions (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and presents them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to chase only his floundering music career inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie never makes Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie grapple with the kind of problems that come with most partnerships a decade in. Deep down, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the metaphor never feels clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the finale plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your significant other and say, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can embark on right now.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform at present.
