Here's a dare for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy scary movies: Sit down with your loved one and watch Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its online premiere via Hulu. At first glance, it might appear like conventional physical horror, but beneath Together exists a profound meditation about our choices in loving one another.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Partnership Complexities
Together represents the first full-length movie for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It features the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for a decade. United in marriage in reality in 2017, the actors bring a particular energy to their portrayals, expertly portraying both the strengths and weaknesses of a committed partnership.
The narrative commences when the couple move from the big city to the country for professional reasons. A somewhat stereotypical narrative setup, sure, but that’s mostly where the cliches conclude. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While trekking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into 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 induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding typical partnership.
The whole movie is a methodically building of scares, blending bits of hallucinatory nightmares, gross (but never too gross) body horror, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes during something grotesque). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and sense of connection is waning due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions gradually emerges.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and removed from his support system. He fears the notion of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is intensified by the reality he lacks a driver's license and is dependent on Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie never makes one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple confront the type of challenges that come with most partnerships after ten years. Deep down, they have affection for one another. They find humor with each other, offer support, and open up at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the paranormal elements in Together represent these anxieties of codependency and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these visceral horror elements offer a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for remaining unattached. On the other hand, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own interpretation could function as a revealing measure of how you think about commitment. Will the conclusion sow a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in either protagonist and feel frustration, or simply turn to your other half and utter, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on Hulu now.
