Consider this a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate horror films: Get comfortable with your partner and stream Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its launch on a streaming platform on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it might appear like standard physical horror, but inside Together lies a intense examination about the ways we decide to love one another.
An Introductory Film Delving into The Nuances of Love
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have been together for a decade. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, the two stars contribute a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The narrative commences when Millie and Tim relocate from the urban environment to the country for her career. A commonly used plot device, of course, but that’s mostly where the tropes end. Together becomes as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their country house, a storm hits, and the protagonists fall into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity takes hold of the duo. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past simple connection.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying of scares, blending elements of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but tastefully done) physical transformations, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks orchestrates these parts expertly and delivers them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is waning due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve relocated rural and distant from his social circle. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in another person. This fear is intensified by the reality he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in Together refrains from painting Tim or Millie the clear bad guy.
Both characters face the kind of problems that are inherent in most partnerships after ten years. Fundamentally, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these fears of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism does not come across as clumsy or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which won’t be spoiled here, 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 avoiding commitment. Conversely, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them resolve their issues.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending plant anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply turn to your significant other and say, “We could get through that together”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an test you can embark on at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
