We present a test for long-term couples who are fans of horror films: Get comfortable with your significant other and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its streaming debut on the Hulu service. At first glance, it could look like standard biological terror, but inside Together lies a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have stayed together for a decade. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their roles, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The plot commences when the couple transition from the big city to the countryside for her career. A familiar story element, sure, but that’s mostly where the tropes cease. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
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 finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence starts to affect the couple. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past simple connection.
The entire film is a slow burn fright fest, weaving in elements of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) body horror, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes amidst something horrific). Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and presents them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they masterfully render numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is waning due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to chase only his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character feels trapped 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 notion of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie avoids making Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the type of challenges that are inherent in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of codependency and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the allegory never feels clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could function as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion inspire anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu as of this moment.
