COMPANION REVIEW
“A movie that bears repeat viewing, for sure.”
Drew Hancock’s comedic thriller Companion is a movie that you really should not know a lot about before going in, which makes writing any sort of comprehensive review particularly difficult. As much as one wants to highlight some of the things that make it worthwhile viewing, you don’t want to ruin any of the surprises that make the movie such a unique experience. That’s particularly hard with Companion, because unless you’ve watched the trailers, not even knowing the basic premise leads to some fun surprises.
It begins almost like a typical rom-com with Jack Quaid’s Josh and Sophie Thatcher’s Iris “meet-cuting” in a grocery store. Shortly after they’re married, they head on a retreat to a remote mansion owned by enigmatic billionaire, Sergey (Rupert Friend), with whom Josh’s friend Kat (Megan Suri) has gotten involved. Also along for this impromptu holiday are the gay couple Eli and Patrick (Harvey Guillén, Lukas Gage), who are just as smitten with each other as Josh and Iris. But there are ulterior motives in play, and that’s where things get interesting.
At this point, if you haven’t watched the trailer and don’t know the basic premise of the film, I’m going to do something uncharacteristic and suggest you STOP READING THIS REVIEW RIGHT NOW. If you have seen the trailer, you’ll know that the concept revolves around Iris being some sort of man-serving automaton controlled by Josh to be the perfect girlfriend. With that knowledge, maybe you’re expecting something akin to M3gan, but this is a very different, and in many ways, a much smarter movie.
Produced by Zach Cregger – whose Barbarian was one of the better horror films in the year it came it out – Companion feels more like a dark comedy about gender roles and relationships, though it does have slight horror elements, mainly in terms of the gorier kills as things begin to get out of hand. The results are something more in the vein of last year’s Strange Darling, another personal favorite in terms of 2024 genre films but also not something I’d consider “horror” persé.
Hancock’s clever premise and script benefits greatly from the cast, particularly Thatcher, who I just became a huge fan of through Heretic, though I hear she’s also great in “Yellowjackets” and one of the “Star Wars” series. In Heretic, she was essentially part of a three-hander often overshadowed by Hugh Grant, while Companion is more of an ensemble piece, in which she fully stands out as Iris. The rest of the cast is decent, I especially liked what Lukas Gage brought as almost a male counterpart to Iris, but again, I don’t want to say too much about what happens in the plot, since I’m sure the movie will be much more enjoyable not knowing too much about the various twists and turns. (I’ll admit that I didn’t even recognize Rupert Friend, and only realized it was him after seeing his name in the end credits.)
Hancock is a decent enough director – I couldn’t figure out if this was his official feature debut but he’s directed a ton of television and quite a bit of comedy – who finds a way to balance the humor and violence quite effectively.
Because of that, Companion works well as a dark comedy than it does as something necessarily horror-related. It isn’t M3gan, nor is it ever trying to be, but it ends up leaving the viewer really pondering some of the ideas introduced by Hancock, with entertaining twists that make it a movie that bears repeat viewing, for sure.
Rating: 7/10
Companion opens nationwide (including on IMAX) on Friday, January 31.