Here's a test for long-term couples who enjoy scary movies: Sit down with your partner and view Together. This critically acclaimed 2025 movie recently had its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it might appear like conventional physical horror, but beneath Together resides a deep meditation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
A Debut Feature Investigating Relationship Dynamics
Together is 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, a pair who are not married that have been together for over ten years. United in marriage in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie bring a particular energy to their characters, masterfully depicting both the strengths and weaknesses of a long-term relationship.
The narrative starts when Tim and Millie transition from the urban environment to the rural area for professional reasons. A commonly used story element, of course, but that’s mostly 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.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their new home, a storm hits, and the two fall into an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and finally finding a way out, a mysterious influence starts to affect the pair. This force induces a paranormal intimacy between them that goes far beyond emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending elements of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but tastefully done) body horror, and surprisingly comedic interactions (sometimes in the middle of something horrific). Shanks skillfully blends these components seamlessly and wraps them up in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A significant portion of Together is exclusively the two lead actors, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a emotional and physical gap. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career gradually emerges.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his support system. He is terrified of the idea of totally forfeiting his individual identity in another person. This fear is amplified by the circumstance he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for getting around.
Shanks’ smartest move in Together refrains from painting either of his characters the definite antagonist.
Both characters confront the type of challenges that come with long-term unions a decade in. At their core, they continue to care for each other. They still laugh together, provide solace, and are vulnerable at times. But under the surface, there’s an persistent current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together symbolize these anxieties of codependency and giving oneself over to a partner, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or heavy-handed. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a ideal counterpart to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. It has been said that unattached audience members have interpreted the film as a compelling reason for staying single. On the other hand, some couples experiencing tension found that the film actually helped them reconcile.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could potentially serve as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in Tim or Millie and feel frustration, or simply turn to your partner and state, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform now.