Here's a dare for long-term couples who enjoy horror films: Settle in with your loved one and stream Together. This independent film success of 2025 has now made its streaming debut via Hulu. At first glance, it could look like standard physical horror, but inside Together exists a deep contemplation about the ways we decide to love our partners.
An Introductory Film Exploring The Nuances of Love
Together is the first full-length movie for director Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Millie and Tim, an unmarried couple that have remained a couple for over ten years. Married in real life in 2017, the actors bring a particular energy to their characters, skillfully embodying both the joys and frustrations of a enduring union.
The story starts when Tim and Millie relocate from the urban environment to the country for her career. A commonly used narrative setup, of course, but that’s mostly where the conventions end. Together transforms into as much a psychological exploration of the partnership as it is a film about physical terror.
An Otherworldly Trigger
While hiking near their country house, a storm hits, and Millie and Tim fall into an subterranean cavern. After spending the night there and managing to escape, a mysterious influence starts to affect the couple. This force induces a otherworldly bond between them that goes well past emotional intimacy.
The whole movie is a methodically building horror experience, weaving in elements of dreamlike terrors, disturbing (but never too gross) physical transformations, and genuinely funny exchanges (sometimes in the middle of something disturbing). Michael Shanks skillfully blends these components neatly and wraps them up in a gradually swelling aura of dread.
Complex Characterizations
A large part of Together is only the two lead actors, and they skillfully illustrate countless layers to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and feeling of intimacy is suffering due to a lack of intimacy. Her unspoken irritation of Tim for his hesitance to focus on anything other than his failing musical ambitions inexorably rises.
In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and separated by Millie, who’s the impetus they’ve moved to the country and distant from his support system. He dreads the concept of utterly sacrificing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is intensified by the circumstance he can’t drive and is dependent on Millie for transportation.
Shanks’ smartest move in this movie never makes Tim or Millie the definite antagonist.
The couple confront the sort of issues that come with long-term unions a decade in. Deep down, they have affection for each other. They find humor with each other, comfort one another, and open up at times. But below this facade, there’s an persistent undercurrent of doubt about their future together.
Allegory and Meaning
While the supernatural forces in Together act as a metaphor for these concerns of excessive reliance and giving oneself over to a partner, the symbolism avoids being overly obvious or pretentious. Instead, these visceral horror elements provide a brilliant analogue to the relationship narrative. Both the frights and the fights serve the other symbiotically.
A Controversial Conclusion
Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has created disagreement on the movie's final takeaway about codependent relationships. It has been said that single viewers have understood the narrative as a powerful case for staying single. Meanwhile, certain partners having disagreements found that the film actually helped them make up.
If you are alone or with a partner, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the ending plant anxiety and horror, or a positive outlook on love? Will you see yourself in Tim or Millie and yell at the screen, or simply glance toward your partner and say, “We could get through that together”?
Regardless of the outcome, Together is an exploration you can experience today.
Together is streaming on Hulu's platform now.
