Here's a test for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Sit down with your significant other and stream Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its online premiere via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like conventional biological terror, but beneath Together exists a profound meditation about our choices in loving each other.
An Introductory Film Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have remained a couple for ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the actors contribute a particular energy to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The story begins when Tim and Millie transition from the metropolis to the rural area for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, 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 body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their new home, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim fall into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence takes hold of the duo. This force compels a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The entire film is a slow burn of scares, interspersing elements of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something horrific). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and presents them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his support system. He dreads the concept of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is amplified by the fact he can’t drive and relies on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he never makes one partner or the other the obvious villain.
Both characters grapple with the kind of problems that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these fears of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism never feels overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in either protagonist 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 test you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu as of this moment.
