We present a challenge for partners in committed relationships who are fans of scary movies: Get comfortable 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 standard biological terror, but inside Together lies a intense contemplation about our choices in loving our partners.
An Introductory Film Investigating Partnership Complexities
Together marks the introductory feature for director Michael Shanks. It features actors Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, a pair who are not married that have stayed together for a decade. Married in actuality in 2017, Franco and Brie infuse a special spark to their characters, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a committed partnership.
The narrative begins when the couple relocate from the metropolis to the country for her career. A commonly used narrative setup, admittedly, but that’s mostly where the cliches cease. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the couple's dynamic as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their country house, a violent storm occurs, and the two fall into an underground cave. After spending the night there and finally finding a way out, a strange force takes hold of the pair. This force compels a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past typical partnership.
The whole movie is a methodically building of scares, blending elements of dreamlike terrors, unsettling (but never too gross) biological grotesqueries, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes during something grotesque). Michael Shanks orchestrates these parts neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling sense of impending doom.
Layered Performances
A large part of Together is only Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render countless layers to the partnership at the film's core. Millie's sense of self and feeling of intimacy is deteriorating due to a lack of intimacy. Her subconscious resentment of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his floundering music career inexorably rises.
Conversely, Tim experiences isolation and cut off by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve moved to the country and distant from his network of friends. He is terrified of the idea of utterly sacrificing his individual identity in his partner. This fear is intensified by the fact he lacks a driver's license and needs Millie for getting around.
The director's cleverest decision is that he never makes one partner or the other the obvious villain.
The couple confront the type of challenges that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. Fundamentally, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and are vulnerable at times. But below this facade, there’s an inescapable feeling of questioning about their bond.
Thematic Depth
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of unhealthy attachment and giving oneself over to another person, the symbolism does not come across as overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a perfect parallel to the relationship narrative. Both the supernatural and the personal enhance each other in a mutually beneficial way.
A Debated Finale
Together’s final act, which remains unspoiled, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that single viewers have interpreted the film as a strong argument for remaining unattached. Conversely, certain partners who were in conflict found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own reaction could function as a revealing measure of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale plant feelings of uneasiness and dread, or a uplifting feeling of optimism? Will you recognize your own traits in either protagonist and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your significant other and state, “I’d do that for you”?
Whatever the case may be, Together is an exploration you can experience at this very moment.
Together is available to watch on Hulu now.
