Here's a challenge for long-term couples who are fans of horror films: Sit down with your significant other and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. On the surface, it may seem like standard body horror, but within Together exists a profound contemplation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, partners that have remained a couple for over ten years. Married in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a particular energy to their characters, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The story begins when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the country for her career. A familiar story element, sure, but that’s primarily where the cliches end. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and the two fall into an underground cave. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence starts to affect the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes far beyond emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying horror experience, blending elements of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but tastefully done) body horror, and authentically humorous interactions (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the partnership at the film's core. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a emotional and physical gap. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and far away from his social circle. He fears the concept of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie never makes Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
The couple confront the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships a decade in. Fundamentally, they still love one another. They find humor with each other, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable feeling of questioning about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these concerns of codependency and fully committing to another person, the allegory avoids being clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. Meanwhile, a few pairs experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own interpretation could act as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply look at your other half and state, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an test you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu now.
