Consider this a challenge for partners in committed relationships who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your significant other and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it might appear like typical physical horror, but inside Together exists a profound meditation about the ways we decide to love one another.
An Introductory Film Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. United in marriage in real life in 2017, the two stars bring a unique chemistry to their roles, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The narrative starts when the couple transition from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A familiar narrative setup, sure, 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 movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim tumble into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence takes hold of the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past simple connection.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying horror experience, weaving in elements of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He is terrified of the notion of totally forfeiting his individual identity in Millie. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making either of his characters the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie face the type of challenges that come with long-term unions over a long period. Deep down, they have affection for one another. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these fears of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the allegory does not come across as hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that single viewers have seen the movie as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the finale plant anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your other half and say, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can undertake right now.
Together is streaming on Hulu as of this moment.
