Here's a test for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy horror films: Get comfortable with your significant other and view Together. This independent film success of 2025 just made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. On the surface, it could look like typical physical horror, but within Together exists a intense examination about how we choose to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together marks the introductory feature for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have stayed together for ten years. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a special spark to their characters, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The plot commences when the couple transition from the urban environment to the country for professional reasons. A familiar plot device, admittedly, but that’s largely where the tropes conclude. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim tumble into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and finally finding a way out, a supernatural entity begins influencing the duo. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying horror experience, interspersing bits of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and wraps them up in a consistently growing sense of impending doom.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is only the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray numerous complexities to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and separated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and far away from his social circle. He is terrified of the idea of completely losing his sense of self in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision is that he refrains from painting Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie face the sort of issues that come with any relationship over a long period. At their core, they still love each other. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these anxieties of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the allegory avoids being overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights work together symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. It has been said that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Conversely, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a telling indicator of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply look at your partner and state, “We could get through that together”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can embark on today.
Together is available to watch on the streaming service Hulu now.
