Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 just made its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like typical body horror, but inside Together resides a deep examination about our choices in loving our partners.
An Introductory Film Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have stayed together for a decade. Married in real life in 2017, the two stars bring a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The narrative starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the country for her career. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the conventions end. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence starts to affect the couple. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past simple connection.
The whole movie is a slow burn of scares, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, gross (but never too gross) body horror, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes during something horrific). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and far away from his network of friends. He is terrified of the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in another person. This fear is intensified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple confront the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. Fundamentally, they have affection for each other. They still laugh together, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the metaphor does not come across as clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the finale sow feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can embark on today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform at present.
