We present a dare for long-term couples who are fans of horror films: Get comfortable with your partner and stream Together. The 2025 indie hit just made its streaming debut via Hulu. Outwardly, it might appear like conventional biological terror, but inside Together resides a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have been together for ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the two stars bring a unique chemistry to their roles, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The plot commences when Millie and Tim transition from the metropolis to the countryside for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, of course, but that’s largely where the tropes cease. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim fall into an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the pair. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a slow burn horror experience, blending bits of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something horrific). The director orchestrates these parts seamlessly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is waning due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and far away from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of completely losing his sense of self in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he never makes either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie confront the kind of problems that arise in most partnerships after ten years. Deep down, they continue to care for one another. They find humor with each other, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor does not come across as overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for staying single. Conversely, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply turn to your partner and say, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can embark on right now.
Together is streaming on Hulu as of this moment.
