Consider this a test for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy horror films: Get comfortable with your loved one and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its online premiere on the Hulu service. At first glance, it could look like standard body horror, but beneath Together lies a intense meditation about our choices in loving our partners.
An Introductory Film Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together represents the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for ten years. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a special spark to their characters, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The plot starts when Millie and Tim transition from the big city to the country for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, sure, but that’s primarily where the cliches conclude. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a body horror flick.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their country house, a tempest descends, and the protagonists discover an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence begins influencing the couple. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond emotional intimacy.
The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending moments of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks weaves these elements together seamlessly and delivers them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to chase only his floundering music career inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character senses confinement and isolated by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the concept of totally forfeiting his sense of self in Millie. This fear is further exacerbated by the reality he can’t drive and needs Millie for mobility.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together refrains from painting either of his characters the clear bad guy.
Tim and Millie grapple with the type of challenges that are inherent in most partnerships over a long period. Fundamentally, they continue to care for one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these anxieties of codependency and totally devoting oneself to another person, the allegory does not come across as hamfisted or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights work together symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a powerful case for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could function as a telling indicator of how you view relationships. Will the finale sow anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your partner and state, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu now.
