We present a dare for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your loved one and stream Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it may seem like conventional body horror, but beneath Together lies a deep examination about our choices in loving one another.
A Directorial Debut Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have stayed together for a decade. United in marriage in real life in 2017, the actors infuse a particular energy to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative begins when the couple move from the big city to the rural area for Millie’s job. A somewhat stereotypical story element, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the cliches conclude. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a body horror flick.
A Paranormal Spark
While trekking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity begins influencing the pair. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past simple connection.
The whole movie is a methodically building horror experience, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes during something horrific). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and delivers them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his support system. He fears the notion of completely losing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie avoids making Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Both characters confront the kind of problems that are inherent in any relationship over a long period. At their core, they still love one another. They still laugh together, offer support, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of codependency and giving oneself over to a partner, the allegory does not come across as overly obvious or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a brilliant analogue to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that single viewers have seen the movie as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the finale plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in one of the characters and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your other half and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can embark on right now.
Together is streaming on Hulu now.