‘Companion’ Review

Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend | Written and Directed by Drew Hancock

Written and directed by Drew Hancock, this deliciously dark horror is produced by the team behind Barbarian, which should tell you something about the number of twists to expect. In fact, on that note, if you have somehow made it this far without actually knowing what Companion is about (if you have, for example, avoided both the trailer and the poster), then you should definitely stop reading now and go in as cold as you can, for maximum enjoyment.

Still here? Okay then, but be warned that the main twist occurs around 24 minutes into the movie and is essentially the basis of the plot from that point on. It’s clear that the filmmakers intended that reveal to be a surprise to the audience, but clearly the marketing department had other ideas, much like the publicity for Terminator 2: Judgement Day completely ruining the meant-to-be-terrifying moment in the movie where a clearly petrified John Connor discovers that Arnie isn’t actually there to kill him after all.

Companion starts brilliantly, with a romcom-style meet-cute, in which beehived beauty Iris (Yellowjacket’s Sophie Thatcher) falls in love with goofy, grinning Josh (Jack Quaid) at the supermarket and announces, in voiceover, “There’ve been two moments in my life when I was happiest. The first was the day I met Josh. And the second was the day I killed him.”

That brilliant opening cuts to several months later in their relationship, where Josh has whisked Iris away to a remote cabin in the woods for a relaxing getaway with some of his friends: catty Kat (Megan Suri), her stinking rich, older Russian boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend), who owns the cabin, and adorable gay couple Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Gage). Things take a turn when Sergey sexually assaults Iris and she stabs him to death in self-defence, but that’s just the beginning and you really should look away now if you don’t want to know more.

Ready? Okay, but don’t say you weren’t warned. Up until this point, given that opening, the audience has been assuming that Companion is about Iris going crazy and killing everyone in the cabin. Instead, Josh issues a command and it suddenly transpires that she’s a robot companion, effectively a highly advanced sexbot, though Josh guiltily refers to her as “an emotional support robot…who also fucks.”

From then on, the film focuses on Robo-Iris realising that she’s been manipulated by Josh (who is literally a controlling, toxic boyfriend) and trying to break free of her programming, with darkly funny and often bloody results.

Making his debut as a director, Hancock gets the tone exactly right, delivering slasher-type shocks and thrills (and 15-certificate gore), while also keeping an undercurrent of jet-black humour and a satirical edge. He also maintains a cracking pace, kicking things into gear early on and ensuring that the whole thing clocks in at a very satisfying 97 minutes.

The script is extremely enjoyable, slipping in some knowingly appropriate film references (Ex-Machina, Stepford Wives, Westworld), while also getting great mileage out of its two most obvious allegories, the perils of toxic, controlling, entitled boyfriends (Quaid has a speech to that end that will be greeted with derisive snorts from the audience) and the rise of the machines, specifically fears about A.I. taking everything from us. Although, in fairness, we’re totally on the robot’s side here.

Rising horror star Thatcher (who’s already having a great year, having recently also starred in Heretic) is simply sensational here, nailing a series of different personality changes as she takes control of her own programming, and convincing both as a socially anxious girlfriend (the film hints early on that people treat her differently for some reason) and a smart-thinking robo-revenge-bot. Her costume choices (essentially a ’60s-style mini-dress) are the icing on the already delicious cake.

There’s also terrific support from Quaid (sporting the mother of all shit-eating grins), whose natural charm and charisma are put to good use as toxic, gaslighting Josh – his performance could well ring all too true for audience members in similar situations. Similarly, there’s strong work from Harvey Guillén (from the What We Do In The Shadows TV show) and Lukas Gage, while Rupert Friend is delightfully sleazy in his all-too-brief screentime as Sergey.

Suffice it to say, there are a number of other twists and turns that it would be unfair to reveal here, and – in a similar way to Barbarian – the film’s general unpredictability is a large part of the fun.

In short, Companion is a thoroughly enjoyable and superbly acted robo-horror romp that marks out writer-director Drew Hancock as a genre talent to watch. Tell your robo-friends.

**** 4/5

Companion is out now.