Consider this a test for those in enduring partnerships who appreciate the horror genre: Get comfortable with your partner and watch Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie has now made its online premiere on the Hulu service. Outwardly, it may seem like conventional biological terror, but inside Together lies a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together is the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for a decade. Married in actuality in 2017, the actors contribute a special spark to their characters, masterfully depicting both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story starts when Millie and Tim relocate from the big city to the countryside for her career. A familiar narrative setup, sure, but that’s largely where the conventions end. Together evolves into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the protagonists tumble into an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes well past simple connection.
The complete narrative is a methodically building fright fest, interspersing moments of hallucinatory nightmares, unsettling (but never too gross) body horror, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something horrific). Shanks weaves these elements together neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is exclusively the performances of its stars, and they deftly portray manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his unwillingness to pursue anything but his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his support system. He dreads the idea of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he can’t drive and relies on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie avoids making Tim or Millie the obvious villain.
The couple grapple with the kind of problems that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. Deep down, they still love one another. They still laugh together, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to a partner, the allegory never feels overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the horror and the drama serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has sparked debate on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Reports indicate that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a strong argument for avoiding commitment. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could act as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the conclusion plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you see yourself in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply look at your significant other and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an experiment you can undertake at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform at present.
