We present a dare for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of scary movies: Sit down with your significant other and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. At first glance, it may seem like standard body horror, but within Together exists a profound meditation about how we choose to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Delving into 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, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The story commences when Tim and Millie 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 tropes cease. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim fall into an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force compels a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The whole movie is a methodically building horror experience, weaving in bits of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes in the middle of something disturbing). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and delivers them in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his social circle. He is terrified of the idea of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he can’t drive and relies on Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Both characters face the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions over a long period. At their core, they still love one another. They share moments of joy, offer support, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these concerns of codependency and giving oneself over to a partner, the allegory never feels overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the horror and the drama work together in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for staying single. On the other hand, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could function as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion sow anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply look at your significant other and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can undertake right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
