Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who enjoy scary movies: Get comfortable with your loved one and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit has now made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like typical physical horror, but beneath Together exists a profound examination about our choices in loving each other.
A Debut Feature Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together is the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It showcases actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. Having wed in reality in 2017, the actors bring a special spark to their roles, expertly portraying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The plot starts when the couple relocate from the big city to the countryside for her career. A familiar story element, of course, but that’s largely where the conventions cease. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the partnership as it is a body horror flick.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While trekking near their new home, a tempest descends, and the two discover an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a supernatural entity begins influencing the couple. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond typical partnership.
The entire film is a methodically building of scares, weaving in bits of fever-dream horrors, unsettling (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). Michael Shanks weaves these elements together expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and emotional bond is suffering due to a emotional and physical gap. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve left the city and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the idea of completely losing his sense of self in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he avoids making Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
Both characters face the type of challenges that come with any relationship over a long period. Fundamentally, they continue to care for one another. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an unavoidable undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these concerns of unhealthy attachment and totally devoting oneself to another person, the metaphor does not come across as hamfisted or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements present a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, certain partners having disagreements found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could function as a telling indicator of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending inspire anxiety and horror, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply look at your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can embark on today.
Together is streaming on Hulu at present.
