Consider this a dare for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate scary movies: Settle in with your partner and stream Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie just made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. Outwardly, it could look like conventional biological terror, but beneath Together lies a profound meditation about the ways we decide to love each other.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have been together for a decade. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their roles, skillfully embodying both the strengths and weaknesses of a enduring union.
The story commences when Millie and Tim transition from the urban environment to the countryside for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, sure, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While trekking near their country house, a storm hits, and the two tumble into an underground cave. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a strange force starts to affect the couple. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, interspersing elements of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something disturbing). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and delivers them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A significant portion of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and removed from his support system. He dreads the notion of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in his partner. This fear is intensified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that are inherent in long-term unions after ten years. Fundamentally, they continue to care for each other. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to another person, the metaphor does not come across as hamfisted or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could function as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale inspire anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you see yourself in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply turn to your other half and utter, “I understand that choice”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu at present.
