Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of the horror genre: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its online premiere on Hulu. At first glance, it could look like standard physical horror, but beneath Together exists a intense meditation about our choices in loving one another.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The story starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the countryside for professional reasons. A familiar story element, sure, but that’s largely where the cliches cease. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While trekking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the duo. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past simple connection.
The entire film is a methodically building of scares, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and presents them in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and far away from his social circle. He dreads the notion of totally forfeiting his sense of self in another person. This fear is amplified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together avoids making Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
The couple grapple with the type of challenges that come with any relationship a decade in. Fundamentally, they still love each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for staying single. On the other hand, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could function as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the ending plant anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your significant other and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu as of this moment.
