Here's a test for long-term couples who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your significant other and view Together. This independent film success of 2025 recently had its online premiere on Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like conventional body horror, but inside Together lies a profound meditation about our choices in loving one another.
A Debut Feature Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for ten years. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, the actors bring a special spark to their roles, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story starts when the couple move from the urban environment to the country for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s largely where the conventions cease. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the pair. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, interspersing bits of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) body horror, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and wraps them up in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his support system. He is terrified of the concept of totally forfeiting his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he refrains from painting Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie face the kind of problems that come with most partnerships after ten years. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these fears of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to a partner, the allegory avoids being overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Conversely, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could function as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply turn to your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can undertake right now.
Together is available to watch on Hulu at present.
