Here's a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate scary movies: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like typical biological terror, but within Together lies a profound contemplation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Debut Feature Delving into Relationship Dynamics
Together represents the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for a decade. United in marriage in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their characters, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The story begins when Tim and Millie move from the metropolis to the countryside for professional reasons. A familiar story element, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes conclude. Together evolves into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a strange force begins influencing the pair. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past simple connection.
The whole movie is a slow burn horror experience, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but never too gross) body horror, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and presents them in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and removed from his support system. He is terrified of the idea of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in Millie. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he can’t drive and relies on Millie for mobility.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
The couple grapple with the kind of problems that come with long-term unions a decade in. At their core, they still love each other. They share moments of joy, offer support, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to a partner, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that single viewers have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for staying single. Conversely, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply turn to your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform at present.
