Here's a test for partners in committed relationships who appreciate scary movies: Sit down with your loved one and view Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its online premiere on Hulu. Outwardly, it could look like standard physical horror, but inside Together resides a intense meditation about the ways we decide to love one another.
A Directorial Debut Investigating The Nuances of Love
Together marks the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It showcases the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for ten years. Married in real life in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a unique chemistry to their portrayals, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a committed partnership.
The story commences when Tim and Millie relocate from the big city to the rural area for her career. A commonly used plot device, sure, but that’s mostly where the conventions cease. Together becomes as much a examination of mental states of the pair’s relationship as it is a movie featuring biological frights.
A Supernatural Catalyst
While hiking near their rural residence, a tempest descends, and the two discover an hole in the earth. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a strange force starts to affect the duo. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The entire film is a gradually intensifying fright fest, blending elements of fever-dream horrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and authentically humorous exchanges (sometimes amidst something disturbing). Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and delivers them in a slowly mounting sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is only the two lead actors, and they deftly portray countless layers to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and emotional bond is waning due to a distance. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career slowly bubbles to the surface.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and removed from his support system. He fears the idea of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is amplified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move is that he refrains from painting either of his characters the definite antagonist.
The couple confront the type of challenges that are inherent in long-term unions after ten years. At their core, they still love each other. They still laugh together, offer support, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an inescapable current of uncertainty about their relationship.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these fears of codependency and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism never feels overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes provide a perfect parallel to the character-driven drama. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s conclusion, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the movie's final takeaway about enmeshed dynamics. Accounts suggest that single viewers have seen the movie as a powerful case for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, certain partners experiencing tension found that the film ultimately assisted them resolve their issues.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could act as a revealing measure of how you view relationships. Will the conclusion plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you identify in one of the characters and scream at your TV, or simply glance toward your partner and utter, “I’d do that for you”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can experience today.
Together is available to watch on Hulu's platform as of this moment.
