Consider this a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate scary movies: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. At first glance, it could look like typical physical horror, but within Together exists a intense meditation about our choices in loving our partners.
A Directorial Debut Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together is the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their characters, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The story starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the conventions end. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists tumble into an underground cave. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence starts to affect the couple. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in bits of fever-dream horrors, gross (but tastefully done) body horror, and authentically humorous interactions (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Shanks orchestrates these parts expertly and wraps them up in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He fears the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in his partner. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he can’t drive and relies on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together never makes Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that arise in any relationship a decade in. At their core, they still love one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these concerns of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or self-important. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama work together in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the ending plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu at present.
