Here's a dare for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and view Together. The independent film success of 2025 recently had its online premiere on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it may seem like typical physical horror, but inside Together resides a profound examination about how we choose to love one another.
An Introductory Film Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together is the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, partners that have been together for ten years. Married in real life in 2017, the actors bring a unique chemistry to their characters, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The story starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A commonly used narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists fall into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a supernatural entity starts to affect the duo. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a slow burn fright fest, weaving in bits of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) body horror, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is suffering due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his social circle. He dreads the idea of completely losing his individual identity in another person. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he does not operate a vehicle and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in Together avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Both characters grapple with the sort of issues that come with most partnerships a decade in. Fundamentally, they still love one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these fears of excessive reliance and fully committing to another person, the allegory never feels hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for staying single. Conversely, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could function as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your other half and state, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
