We present a test for long-term couples who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your loved one and watch Together. The independent film success of 2025 has now made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like conventional body horror, but inside Together exists a profound meditation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together is the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have stayed together for over ten years. United in marriage in real life in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The plot commences when the couple relocate from the urban environment to the rural area for her career. A commonly used story element, of course, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their new home, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim fall into an underground cave. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity begins influencing the duo. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but never too gross) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Michael Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and presents them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they skillfully illustrate countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to chase only his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his social circle. He dreads the concept of totally forfeiting his individual identity in his partner. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he never makes one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Both characters face the sort of issues that are inherent in any relationship a decade in. At their core, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these anxieties of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the allegory does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a strong argument for remaining unattached. On the other hand, some couples who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could act as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your partner and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an test you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform at present.
