Here's a challenge for partners in committed relationships who are fans of scary movies: Get comfortable with your partner and stream Together. This 2025 indie hit recently had its launch on a streaming platform on Hulu. On the surface, it could look like conventional biological terror, but inside Together resides a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Debut Feature Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together marks the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have been together for over ten years. Having wed in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a unique chemistry to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.
The narrative starts when the couple transition from the big city to the countryside for Millie’s job. A commonly used plot device, of course, but that’s primarily where the conventions end. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their country house, a storm hits, and the two fall into an underground cave. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a strange force begins influencing the couple. This force compels a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding simple connection.
The whole movie is a slow burn horror experience, weaving in elements of fever-dream horrors, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes amidst something horrific). Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and delivers them in a slowly mounting aura of dread.
Nuanced Portrayals
A great deal of Together is exclusively Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his reluctance to chase only his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and distant from his support system. He fears the idea of totally forfeiting his sense of self in his partner. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision in this movie never makes either of his characters the definite antagonist.
Both characters face the sort of issues that come with any relationship a decade in. Deep down, they continue to care for one another. They find humor with each other, provide solace, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of doubt about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together represent these concerns of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to another person, the symbolism avoids being overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the horror and the drama work together symbiotically.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. Reports indicate that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a strong argument for staying single. On the other hand, a few pairs having disagreements found that the film ended up guiding them to make up.
Whether you’re single or coupled up, your own reaction could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply look at your partner and state, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can experience at this very moment.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
