Here's a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Settle in with your significant other and stream Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it may seem like standard biological terror, but within Together exists a deep meditation about how we choose to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their characters, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative starts when Tim and Millie transition from the urban environment to the country for her career. A familiar plot device, of course, but that’s mostly where the conventions cease. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their country house, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence starts to affect the duo. This force compels a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a slow burn horror experience, weaving in moments of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something disturbing). Shanks orchestrates these parts expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is solely the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the partnership at the film's core. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is suffering due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve left the city and far away from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of totally forfeiting his sense of self in another person. This fear is amplified by the reality he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together refrains from painting one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the kind of problems that arise in any relationship over a long period. At their core, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, offer support, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these fears of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to a partner, the allegory does not come across as clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own interpretation could function as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the ending plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your significant other and say, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can experience at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
