Consider this a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who are fans of the horror genre: Get comfortable with your loved one and stream Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its streaming debut on Hulu. On the surface, it could look like typical body horror, but beneath Together resides a deep meditation about our choices in loving our partners.
A Directorial Debut Exploring Relationship Dynamics
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for a decade. Having wed in reality in 2017, the actors infuse a unique chemistry to their characters, skillfully embodying both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The narrative commences when Tim and Millie transition from the urban environment to the country for her career. A somewhat stereotypical plot device, admittedly, but that’s primarily where the cliches end. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the pair’s relationship as it is a body horror flick.
A Paranormal Spark
While walking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into an subterranean cavern. After being trapped overnight there and eventually escaping, a strange force begins influencing the pair. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a gradually intensifying horror experience, weaving in bits of dreamlike terrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) body horror, and genuinely funny interactions (sometimes in the middle of something grotesque). The director skillfully blends these components expertly and presents them in a slowly mounting atmosphere of fear.
Complex Characterizations
A great deal of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is deteriorating due to a distance. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his unwillingness to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim senses confinement and cut off by Millie, who’s the cause they’ve moved to the country and removed from his network of friends. He fears the notion of utterly sacrificing his sense of self in another person. This fear is further exacerbated by the fact he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
The film's most intelligent aspect is that he never makes Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
Tim and Millie grapple with the sort of issues that come with any relationship after ten years. Deep down, they have affection for one another. They still laugh together, comfort one another, and open up at times. But under the surface, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their future together.
Thematic Depth
While the otherworldly presence in Together represent these fears of excessive reliance and totally devoting oneself to another person, the metaphor never feels overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes offer a ideal counterpart to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in harmony.
A Divisive Ending
Together’s final act, which is best experienced firsthand, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have interpreted the film as a powerful case for remaining unattached. Meanwhile, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could function as a great barometer of how you view relationships. Will the finale plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your partner and state, “I understand that choice”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
