Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who appreciate the horror genre: Settle in with your partner and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its online premiere on Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like conventional biological terror, but within Together lies a intense examination about our choices in loving one another.
A Directorial Debut Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for over ten years. Married in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a special spark to their roles, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The plot begins when Tim and Millie transition from the metropolis to the rural area for her career. A familiar plot device, of course, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together evolves into as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence takes hold of the duo. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The whole movie is a slow burn of scares, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something disturbing). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and presents them in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve left the city and removed from his support system. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision is that he never makes either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie face the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. Deep down, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these fears of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the metaphor never feels clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which won’t be spoiled here, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that single viewers have seen the movie as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply look at your significant other and utter, “I understand that choice”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is currently playing on Hulu as of this moment.
