Here's a test for partners in committed relationships who are fans of the horror genre: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like standard biological terror, but within Together resides a profound examination about our choices in loving our partners.
A Debut Feature Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, partners that have stayed together for ten years. Married in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a unique chemistry to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The story starts when the couple transition from the metropolis to the countryside for Millie’s job. A commonly used narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim tumble into an subterranean cavern. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a supernatural entity takes hold of the pair. This force induces a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying of scares, blending bits of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and presents them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his social circle. He is terrified of the concept of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in another person. This fear is amplified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision in Together never makes one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the sort of issues that are inherent in long-term unions over a long period. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these fears of codependency and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the allegory does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own response could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply turn to your significant other and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can undertake right now.
Together is available to watch on Hulu as of this moment.
