Consider this a dare for partners in committed relationships who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like typical body horror, but inside Together exists a intense examination about how we choose to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together marks the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple 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, the actors infuse a unique chemistry to their characters, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The narrative begins when the couple relocate from the urban environment to the countryside for her career. A familiar narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the tropes cease. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a storm hits, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a strange force takes hold of the couple. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a slow burn of scares, interspersing moments of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes amidst something disturbing). The director weaves these elements together neatly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and removed from his social circle. He fears the idea of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in Millie. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie never makes Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie face the type of challenges that come with long-term unions after ten years. Deep down, they have affection for one another. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these concerns of codependency and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the symbolism avoids being overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Conversely, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could function as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and say, “We could get through that together”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake right now.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu now.
