Consider this a dare for partners in committed relationships who are fans of scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and view Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. At first glance, it might appear like typical biological terror, but within Together exists a deep meditation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have stayed together for over ten years. Married in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The plot starts when Tim and Millie move from the big city to the countryside for her career. A familiar plot device, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the conventions end. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and the two fall into an underground cave. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence takes hold of the pair. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, blending elements of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) body horror, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a emotional and physical gap. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He fears the concept of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is amplified by the fact he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he never makes either of his characters the clear bad guy.
The couple face the sort of issues that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. Deep down, they still love each other. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these anxieties of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism never feels clumsy or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, 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 seen the movie as a compelling reason for staying single. On the other hand, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could function as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
