Released: 30th January
Seen: 21st April
One of the best things in a good horror film is a twist, a moment when the narrative takes a sharp left-hand turn out of seemingly nowhere and takes the audience on a thrill ride. There’s been a few recent horror films that have been spectacular at this, things like Barbarian where it set itself up as a film about two people stuck in an Airbnb overnight and ended up being one of the most demented films of the year or The Perfection which took the concept of a ‘twist” and dialled it up to 11 to see just how many twists it could fit into 90 minutes without the audience losing its mind. Today’s film, Companion, is a terrifically twisted take on the romance film that takes a few big swings and mostly makes them work.
Companion follows Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid), a cute young couple who are going to spend a weekend at the secluded cabin with two other couples that they know. The owner of the cabin, Sergey (Rupert Friend) and his girlfriend Kat (Megan Suri) along with their gay besties Patrick (Lukas Gage) and Eli (Harvey Guillén) are all just having a wonderful time. The three couples go about, dancing around the house, going to the beach, generally just having a grand old time until Sergey makes a move on Iris and Iris ends up killing him. This would be bad enough as it was but turns out that Iris isn’t actually a human, she’s a robot that’s not supposed to be able to harm a human and that’s just the twist they revealed in the marketing material, it goes wackier from there.
For a seemingly light-hearted film meant to be a more mainstream horror fare, it’s still surprising how much Companion packs into its brief runtime. Topics of sexual assault, power imbalance, romance, incels, AI and its potential risks and even the fallibility of memories are all in some way touched on here in ways that could feel heavy handed without the deft touch of the writer/director Drew Hancock making sure that everything stays on track. Sure, that does mean some of the heavier topics don’t get as much focus as you’d hope they would, but the fact that it’s able to do so much with its limited runtime while not feeling too heavy-handed is actually pretty awesome.
Helping sell this concept is the fact that the core cast is an absolute triumph, in particular Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher who manage to bounce between so many extremes of their relationship with such ease that it’s truly compelling to witness. Sophie in particular has the gargantuan task of playing a robot who just learns that they’re a robot and manages to sell that insane concept like nothing else. While the other characters are truly a lot of fun (Patrick and Eli are an all timer horror movie gay couple, just saying that right now) it’s the two leads who carry Companion and give it the most intense drama you could hope for. You easily fall in love with the two of them as a couple, and soon enough, they will put you through an emotional blender that will carry the rest of the film.
Companion really does work hard to earn those twists in the narrative, playing a few of its cards very close to the chest to reveal things at just the right moment for maximum impact. It’s playful with some of them, using them smartly to build plot or character and even occasionally helping set up some heartbreaking emotional moments. It’s not perfect, some twists you can see coming and some aren’t as impactful as they could be, but they still work well enough to keep the story going. You have to buy into some of the ideas, namely this strange futuristic robot technology and its specific controls but once you do it’s a pretty easy ride to take.
Companion is just a simple, breezy 90-minute horror film that’s got some serious things to talk about but does them in a fun way. It’s not going to be the dark heavy takedown of toxic masculinity you might hope for based on what the trailers imply and it’s certainly not going to push too many boundaries but it’s still quite an enjoyable time with some fascinating characters, a few truly shocking moments and enough charm to power through. It’s an easy film to get into and enjoy, giving just enough of everything it needs to give in order to be worth the time… though it probably isn’t a great date movie, I can’t imagine seeing a couple like this is a great mood setter.
Movie Meister Reviews 