We present a challenge for long-term couples who appreciate the horror genre: Sit down with your significant other and watch Together. The independent film success of 2025 has now made its streaming debut via Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like typical physical horror, but within Together exists a intense contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together is the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for ten years. United in marriage in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The story commences when the couple move from the metropolis to the countryside for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical story element, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the tropes cease. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their rural residence, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim fall into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the duo. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, interspersing moments of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes during something disturbing). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and presents them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is suffering due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his social circle. He dreads the idea of completely losing his personal autonomy in another person. This fear is intensified by the reality he can’t drive and relies on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie face the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions over a long period. Fundamentally, they still love each other. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to another person, the allegory avoids being overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a perfect parallel to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights work together in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, 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 interpreted the film as a powerful case for remaining unattached. On the other hand, some couples experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply look at your partner and utter, “We could get through that together”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can experience today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu at present.
