We present a challenge for long-term couples who are fans of horror films: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its streaming debut on the Hulu service. At first glance, it could look like conventional physical horror, but within Together resides a intense examination about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Delving into Relationship Dynamics
Together marks the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a particular energy to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The story begins when the couple move from the metropolis to the rural area for her career. A familiar story element, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the tropes cease. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence starts to affect the pair. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes far beyond emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a slow burn of scares, interspersing moments of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). The director skillfully blends these components neatly and delivers them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his network of friends. He is terrified of the concept of completely losing his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he can’t drive and needs Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie face the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions over a long period. At their core, they still love each other. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of codependency and giving oneself over to a partner, the metaphor never feels overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a strong argument for staying single. Conversely, some couples experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion plant anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your other half and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is currently playing on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
