Consider this a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate horror films: Get comfortable with your loved one and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 recently had its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like typical biological terror, but within Together resides a profound contemplation about how we choose to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together marks the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for a decade. Having wed in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their portrayals, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The narrative commences when the couple move from the big city to the rural area for Millie’s job. A familiar plot device, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the tropes end. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists tumble into an underground cave. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a strange force takes hold of the duo. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but tastefully done) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic dialogue (sometimes amidst something grotesque). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and delivers them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is waning due to a emotional and physical gap. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of completely losing his individual identity in Millie. This fear is amplified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes either of his characters the obvious villain.
Tim and Millie grapple with the sort of issues that come with most partnerships over a long period. Fundamentally, they have affection for each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these fears of codependency and giving oneself over to a partner, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments provide a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, a few pairs who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion plant anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your partner and state, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can experience today.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform now.
