Here's a test for partners in committed relationships who enjoy scary movies: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. The independent film success of 2025 has now made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like conventional body horror, but within Together resides a profound meditation about how we choose to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together marks the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for a decade. Married in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their characters, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The plot commences when Millie and Tim move from the urban environment to the country for her career. A commonly used narrative setup, sure, but that’s largely where the tropes cease. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the pair. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a methodically building of scares, interspersing elements of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and distant from his support system. He fears the notion of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in Millie. This fear is intensified by the fact he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that arise in long-term unions after ten years. Deep down, they still love one another. They find humor with each other, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to another person, the metaphor never feels overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could function as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the ending plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply glance toward your partner and say, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an experiment you can embark on right now.
Together is available to watch on Hulu now.
