Here's a dare for partners in committed relationships who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your partner and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 just made its online premiere on Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like typical biological terror, but within Together lies a intense examination about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together marks the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a unique chemistry to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The narrative starts when Millie and Tim move from the metropolis to the country for professional reasons. A familiar plot device, of course, but that’s largely where the tropes end. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the two tumble into an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a strange force takes hold of the pair. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The entire film is a methodically building of scares, weaving in bits of dreamlike terrors, gross (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director orchestrates these parts neatly and presents them in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is waning due to a emotional and physical gap. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and distant from his network of friends. He is terrified of the notion of totally forfeiting his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie refrains from painting Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
The couple face the type of challenges that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to another person, the allegory never feels overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. Conversely, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could function as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply turn to your significant other and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
