Here's a test for long-term couples who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like standard body horror, but within Together exists a intense examination about how we choose to love each other.
An Introductory Film Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for a decade. Married in actuality in 2017, the actors infuse a special spark to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The narrative starts when the couple relocate from the urban environment to the country for Millie’s job. A familiar story element, sure, but that’s largely where the conventions end. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the two discover an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a strange force starts to affect the couple. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The whole movie is a methodically building of scares, weaving in moments of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). The director weaves these elements together seamlessly and delivers them in a consistently growing atmosphere of fear.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in Millie. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he can’t drive and needs Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he avoids making Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
The couple grapple with the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. Deep down, they have affection for each other. They share moments of joy, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these fears of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor does not come across as hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale sow 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 look at your other half and say, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform now.
