Here's a dare for partners in committed relationships who appreciate scary movies: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like conventional body horror, but beneath Together exists a intense contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together marks the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the two stars contribute a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The plot commences when the couple move from the big city to the rural area for professional reasons. A familiar plot device, sure, but that’s mostly where the tropes end. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence starts to affect the pair. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a methodically building of scares, interspersing bits of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts expertly and presents them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and far away from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie avoids making Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Both characters confront the sort of issues that arise in any relationship over a long period. Fundamentally, they still love one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the metaphor does not come across as hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. On the other hand, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could act as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your significant other and utter, “We could get through that together”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can undertake today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform at present.
