Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who enjoy horror films: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it may seem like standard biological terror, but within Together exists a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Debut Feature Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together is the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It stars 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. United in marriage in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their roles, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The story commences when the couple relocate from the big city to the country for her career. A commonly used narrative setup, sure, but that’s largely where the conventions conclude. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim discover an underground cave. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a supernatural entity begins influencing the couple. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a slow burn fright fest, blending bits of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his floundering music career inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and removed from his social circle. He is terrified of the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in another person. This fear is intensified by the reality he can’t drive and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision is that he refrains from painting one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the sort of issues that are inherent in most partnerships after ten years. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the allegory avoids being clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the horror and the drama enhance each other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Reports indicate that single viewers have interpreted the film as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Conversely, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could function as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your partner and say, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu at present.
