Here's a challenge for long-term couples who are fans of scary movies: Sit down with your partner and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 recently had its online premiere via Hulu. Outwardly, it might appear like conventional body horror, but inside Together exists a profound contemplation about how we choose to love each other.
A Debut Feature Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, partners that have stayed together for over ten years. Having wed in real life in 2017, the two stars contribute a particular energy to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The narrative starts when Millie and Tim relocate from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A commonly used plot device, sure, but that’s mostly where the conventions cease. Together transforms into as much a examination of mental states of the partnership as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While walking near their country house, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim fall into an hole in the earth. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a strange force starts to affect the couple. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond simple connection.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, interspersing moments of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny dialogue (sometimes amidst something horrific). Michael Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and presents them in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they masterfully render countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is waning due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and removed from his support system. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he lacks a driver's license and relies on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together refrains from painting Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Both characters grapple with the kind of problems that come with any relationship over a long period. Deep down, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these fears of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to a partner, the symbolism does not come across as clumsy or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal work together in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that those not in relationships have seen the movie as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. Conversely, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion inspire anxiety and horror, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply turn to your other half and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform at present.
