Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy the horror genre: Settle in with your significant other and stream Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. At first glance, it might appear like standard body horror, but within Together exists a profound meditation about how we choose to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It features Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. Married in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their characters, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The plot commences when Millie and Tim relocate from the metropolis to the country for professional reasons. A familiar narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes conclude. 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 hiking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a strange force starts to affect the couple. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The entire film is a slow burn horror experience, weaving in elements of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate countless layers to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and removed from his network of friends. He is terrified of the idea of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is amplified by the reality he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together never makes one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie face the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships over a long period. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism never feels hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a perfect parallel to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have seen the movie as a strong argument for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your significant other and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform now.
