We present a dare for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate scary movies: Get comfortable with your loved one and watch Together. The critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. At first glance, it may seem like typical body horror, but beneath Together resides a deep contemplation about our choices in loving our partners.
An Introductory Film Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together marks the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the actors contribute a particular energy to their roles, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a long-term relationship.
The narrative begins when Millie and Tim move from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the conventions end. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim tumble into an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a slow burn of scares, weaving in moments of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and delivers them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A significant portion of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and far away from his social circle. He fears the idea of totally forfeiting his sense of self in another person. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The director's cleverest decision is that he avoids making one partner or the other the clear bad guy.
The couple grapple with the kind of problems that arise in long-term unions after ten years. At their core, they still love one another. They find humor with each other, offer support, and share intimately at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these concerns of codependency and fully committing to another person, the allegory avoids being overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a strong argument for remaining unattached. On the other hand, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could function as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the ending sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply turn to your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can experience at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
