This New Horror Film Has Debuted on Streaming, and It Could Strengthen or Shatter Your Relationship.

Here's a test for long-term couples who appreciate horror films: Sit down with your partner and watch Together. The independent film success of 2025 just made its launch on a streaming platform via Hulu. Outwardly, it may seem like standard body horror, but beneath Together resides a deep meditation about the ways we decide to love our partners.

A Directorial Debut Delving into Partnership Complexities

Together is the debut feature-length film for filmmaker Michael Shanks. It stars the real-life married couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie as a couple named Tim and Millie, a pair who are not married that have remained a couple for ten years. Married in reality in 2017, Franco and Brie contribute a particular energy to their roles, masterfully depicting both the good and bad of a long-term relationship.

The narrative starts when Tim and Millie transition from the urban environment to the rural area for her career. A familiar narrative setup, of course, but that’s largely where the cliches end. Together becomes as much a psychological exploration of the partnership as it is a movie featuring biological frights.

A Supernatural Catalyst

While walking near their rural residence, a violent storm occurs, and Millie and Tim fall into an hole in the earth. After a night spent there and eventually escaping, a mysterious influence starts to affect the pair. This force creates a paranormal intimacy between them that goes exceeding emotional intimacy.

The complete narrative is a gradually intensifying of scares, weaving in elements of hallucinatory nightmares, disturbing (but never too gross) body horror, and authentically humorous dialogue (sometimes during something grotesque). Shanks skillfully blends these components expertly and delivers them in a gradually swelling atmosphere of fear.

Nuanced Portrayals

A large part of Together is solely Brie and Franco, and they masterfully render manifold depths to the dynamic between Tim and Millie. Millie’s confidence and sense of connection is suffering due to a distance. Her underlying frustration of Tim for his reluctance to focus on anything other than his struggling artistic pursuits gradually emerges.

In contrast, Tim's character experiences isolation and isolated by Millie, who’s the reason they’ve relocated rural and removed from his network of friends. He fears the notion of completely losing his personal autonomy in his partner. This fear is intensified by the fact he does not operate a vehicle and needs Millie for getting around.

The film's most intelligent aspect in this movie avoids making one partner or the other the obvious villain.

Both characters face the type of challenges that are inherent in any relationship after ten years. Fundamentally, they still love one another. They share moments of joy, provide solace, and share intimately at times. But under the surface, there’s an persistent feeling of questioning about their future together.

Thematic Depth

While the supernatural forces in Together symbolize these concerns of excessive reliance and fully committing to a partner, the metaphor avoids being clumsy or pretentious. Instead, these ickier, creepier moments offer a brilliant analogue to the interpersonal storytelling. Both the supernatural and the personal serve the other in a mutually beneficial way.

A Controversial Conclusion

Together’s ending, which is best experienced firsthand, has sparked debate on the film’s ultimate message about unhealthy partnerships. Accounts suggest that those not in relationships have understood the narrative as a strong argument for staying single. Conversely, some couples who were in conflict found that the film ultimately assisted them make up.

Regardless of your relationship status, your own response could act as a great barometer of how you perceive partnership. Will the finale inspire a sense of discomfort and fear, or a heartwarming sense of hope? Will you identify in one of the characters and feel frustration, or simply look at your partner and say, “I’d do that for you”?

Regardless of the outcome, Together is an experiment you can undertake right now.

Together is streaming on Hulu's platform at present.