Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who are fans of the horror genre: Get comfortable with your significant other and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its streaming debut on Hulu. On the surface, it could look like standard physical horror, but within Together lies a deep examination about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Debut Feature Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The narrative starts when Millie and Tim move from the metropolis to the rural area for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, sure, but that’s mostly where the tropes end. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence takes hold of the couple. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, blending bits of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and far away from his support system. He dreads the concept of totally forfeiting his sense of self in another person. This fear is amplified by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision in Together never makes either of his characters the definite antagonist.
The couple confront the kind of problems that are inherent in long-term unions after ten years. At their core, they have affection for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor avoids being hamfisted or self-important. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a brilliant analogue to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have seen the movie as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. Conversely, 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 response could act as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the ending inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply look at your significant other and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can undertake right now.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
