We present a test for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Get comfortable with your loved one and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its online premiere via Hulu. On the surface, it might appear like standard body horror, but within Together lies a intense meditation about how we choose to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for a decade. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a special spark to their roles, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The story commences when Tim and Millie move from the big city to the country for her career. A commonly used plot device, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the conventions end. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into an underground cave. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a strange force takes hold of the duo. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying fright fest, interspersing bits of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Michael Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and delivers them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is waning due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and removed from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie avoids making one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the sort of issues that come with any relationship a decade in. Deep down, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the allegory does not come across as clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the frights and the fights enhance each other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that single viewers have understood the narrative as a strong argument for remaining unattached. On the other hand, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could act as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the finale plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply look at your significant other and say, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can embark on right now.
Together is currently playing on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
