Consider this a test for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its streaming debut on Hulu. At first glance, it could look like conventional body horror, but inside Together resides a profound contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together marks the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a unique chemistry to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The story starts when the couple transition from the metropolis to the country for Millie’s job. A commonly used story element, sure, but that’s largely where the cliches cease. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and the protagonists discover an underground cave. After a night spent there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity begins influencing the duo. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in elements of dreamlike terrors, gross (but tastefully done) body horror, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something disturbing). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and presents them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is suffering due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie grapple with the type of challenges that are inherent in long-term unions a decade in. At their core, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism avoids being hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that single viewers have interpreted the film as a powerful case for staying single. On the other hand, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could potentially serve as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. 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 scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your significant other and say, “I understand that choice”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
