Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it might appear like typical biological terror, but inside Together lies a profound meditation about how we choose to love one another.
A Debut Feature Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for a decade. United in marriage in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a particular energy to their roles, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The plot starts when the couple move from the urban environment to the country for her career. A commonly used narrative setup, sure, but that’s largely where the cliches cease. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While walking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the pair. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying horror experience, blending elements of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes amidst something disturbing). The director orchestrates these parts seamlessly and delivers them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and far away from his support system. He fears the concept of totally forfeiting his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he can’t drive and relies on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in Together avoids making one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
The couple face the type of challenges that are inherent in any relationship over a long period. Fundamentally, they continue to care for one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these fears of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to another person, the metaphor never feels clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights work together symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a powerful case for staying single. On the other hand, some couples experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion sow anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your partner and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu now.
