Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Sit down with your significant other and view Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. At first glance, it may seem like typical physical horror, but inside Together resides a deep meditation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for a decade. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a special spark to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The plot commences when the couple transition from the urban environment to the countryside for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, of course, but that’s mostly where the cliches cease. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their country house, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a strange force starts to affect the couple. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying fright fest, weaving in elements of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and presents them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his network of friends. He fears the concept of completely losing his sense of self in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making either of his characters the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie grapple with the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions after ten years. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these fears of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the symbolism does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending inspire anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your other half and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can experience right now.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu at present.
