Here's a test for long-term couples who appreciate the horror genre: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its online premiere on the Hulu service. On the surface, it may seem like typical biological terror, but inside Together exists a profound examination about our choices in loving one another.
A Debut Feature Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for over ten years. United in marriage in reality in 2017, the two stars bring a unique chemistry to their characters, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The plot begins when Tim and Millie move from the urban environment to the country for Millie’s job. A commonly used plot device, of course, but that’s mostly where the tropes conclude. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists tumble into an underground cave. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a supernatural entity starts to affect the pair. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a slow burn fright fest, weaving in bits of dreamlike terrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and presents them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is waning due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and far away from his social circle. He dreads the idea of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is intensified by the reality he can’t drive and relies on Millie for mobility.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he never makes Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie face the kind of problems that arise in any relationship over a long period. At their core, they still love each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism does not come across as hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have seen the movie as a powerful case for staying single. Conversely, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale sow anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your other half and say, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu at present.
