Consider this a test for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. On the surface, it might appear like typical physical horror, but inside Together lies a intense meditation about our choices in loving our partners.
A Directorial Debut Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for ten years. Married in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their roles, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story starts when Millie and Tim transition from the metropolis to the countryside for her career. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the tropes end. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their new home, a storm hits, and the two tumble into an underground cave. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity begins influencing the pair. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending bits of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). The director orchestrates these parts neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to chase only his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and far away from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie refrains from painting either of his characters the definite antagonist.
The couple face the sort of issues that arise in most partnerships over a long period. At their core, they still love one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the metaphor does not come across as overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Conversely, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your partner and say, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
