We present a challenge for those in enduring partnerships who enjoy the horror genre: Sit down with your partner and stream Together. This independent film success of 2025 just made its streaming debut on the Hulu service. On the surface, it could look like typical body horror, but within Together lies a deep examination about the ways we decide to love each other.
A Debut Feature Delving into Partnership Complexities
Together represents the debut feature-length film for director Michael Shanks. It stars actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Tim and Millie, partners that have remained a couple for ten years. Married in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a special spark to their portrayals, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a enduring union.
The narrative commences when the couple relocate from the big city to the rural area for her career. A commonly used narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the cliches conclude. Together transforms into as much a deep dive into the psyche of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
A Paranormal Spark
While hiking near their new home, a violent storm occurs, and the two fall into an underground cave. After being trapped overnight there and managing to escape, a strange force starts to affect the pair. This force creates a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The entire film is a slow burn horror experience, interspersing elements of fever-dream horrors, gross (but not excessively graphic) biological grotesqueries, and surprisingly comedic exchanges (sometimes during something disturbing). Michael Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and delivers them in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Nuanced Portrayals
A large part of Together is solely the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate manifold depths to the characters’ relationship. Her self-assurance and feeling of intimacy is waning due to a lack of intimacy. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his hesitance to pursue anything but his struggling artistic pursuits inexorably rises.
Tim, on the other hand experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve relocated rural and far away from his network of friends. He is terrified of the notion of completely losing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is further exacerbated by the circumstance he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for mobility.
The director's cleverest decision is that he refrains from painting Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
The couple grapple with the type of challenges that arise in any relationship a decade in. Deep down, they continue to care for each other. They share moments of joy, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But beneath it all, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their future together.
Symbolism and Metaphor
While the paranormal elements in Together symbolize these fears of unhealthy attachment and fully committing to a partner, the allegory does not come across as overly obvious or self-important. Instead, these more disturbing, unsettling scenes present a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s ending, which remains unspoiled, has left audiences divided on the story's concluding statement about codependent relationships. Reports indicate that unattached audience members have understood the narrative as a compelling reason for avoiding commitment. On the other hand, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ended up guiding them to reconcile.
Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending plant a sense of discomfort and fear, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and scream at your TV, or simply look at your partner and say, “I’d do that for you”?
No matter your reaction, Together is an exploration you can undertake today.
Together is streaming on the streaming service Hulu at present.
