We present a dare for partners in committed relationships who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your loved one and view Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like typical body horror, but inside Together exists a profound examination about our choices in loving each other.
A Directorial Debut Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together is the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have been together for ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative starts when the couple relocate from the big city to the rural area for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, of course, but that’s primarily where the cliches conclude. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a tempest descends, and the protagonists tumble into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force starts to affect the duo. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The complete narrative is a methodically building of scares, weaving in elements of fever-dream horrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes amidst something horrific). Shanks orchestrates these parts seamlessly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and removed from his social circle. He dreads the notion of completely losing his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in Together never makes Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie confront the sort of issues that arise in long-term unions a decade in. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of codependency and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s conclusion, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Conversely, certain partners having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your significant other and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform at present.
