We present a dare for long-term couples who enjoy the horror genre: Get comfortable with your partner and stream Together. This independent film success of 2025 recently had its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. At first glance, it may seem like standard body horror, but within Together resides a profound meditation about our choices in loving each other.
An Introductory Film Investigating 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 been together for ten years. Married in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their characters, expertly portraying both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The narrative commences when the couple move from the urban environment to the rural area for her career. A commonly used story element, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the conventions conclude. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their country house, a tempest descends, and Millie and Tim discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a supernatural entity starts to affect the couple. This force creates a supernatural closeness between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The whole movie is a slow burn horror experience, interspersing moments of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but not excessively graphic) physical transformations, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes amidst something grotesque). The director orchestrates these parts seamlessly and presents them in a consistently growing aura of dread.
Layered Performances
A great deal of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they skillfully illustrate numerous complexities to the characters’ relationship. Millie's sense of self and sense of connection is waning due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim feels trapped and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his network of friends. He dreads the notion of completely losing his sense of self in his partner. This fear is intensified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and relies on Millie for getting around.
The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie avoids making one partner or the other the definite antagonist.
Both characters face the sort of issues that arise in any relationship over a long period. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They find humor with each other, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an unavoidable current of uncertainty about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these anxieties of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to another person, the allegory never feels clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments present a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the frights and the fights serve the other in harmony.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about enmeshed dynamics. It has been said that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could potentially serve as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion inspire feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your significant other and say, “I understand that choice”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can experience right now.
Together is streaming on Hulu as of this moment.
