Film Review: Companion | Under the Radar Magazine Under the Radar | Music Blog for the Indie Music Magazine
Saturday, February 15th, 2025  

Companion

Studio: New Line Cinema
Director: Drew Hancock

Jan 30, 2025 Web Exclusive

The most human character in Drew Hancock’s debut feature isn’t human at all.

Companion is a genre-bending, near-future, sci-fi horror/anti-rom-com that challenges our dehumanized use of technology and interpersonal relationships. Hancock utilizes his small horror all-star cast deftly while not wasting a single second of its 97-minute runtime.

Companion begins as many horror films do, with a couple meeting friends for a getaway in a remote cabin. There’s the main couple, the aspirational long-time couple, the prickly friend, and the necessarily enigmatic loner designed to increase initial tensions. The similarities to horror films that open this way soon end as Companion establishes that all is not as it seems. The main heroine, Iris (Sophie Thatcher), delivers adoring Stepford-like lines to her beau, Josh (Jack Quaid), with the exchange carrying a double meaning that becomes clear later. The trailers spoil the fact that Iris’s odd behavior is due to her nature as a service model robot—specifically one designed to be a lover to Josh. After an inciting incident causes things to spiral out of control, our robotic protagonist must grapple with dark truths and navigate the limitations of her nature while finding her agency in a desperate bid for survival from her would-be manipulators.

The bodies and blood pool freely as the narrative explores ownership, humanity, identity, and connection in a concise examination of the human condition that never overstays its welcome. While it doesn’t lean too heavily in a sci-fi direction, courtesy of Hancock’s desire to keep the film grounded, it maintains a near-futuristic vibe that relates back to our current relationship with technology. This can be felt in the quiet moments of the characters’ generalized awkwardness around Iris, to their outright disdain for her presence. Iris presents as a passenger until she is forced to learn her own agency. Some plot twists and the pacing of the story advance things to a fitting conclusion. For the gore hounds out there, there might even be an incredible sequence that won’t be soon forgotten.

The principal cast is composed of rising stars in horror. Many will recognize Thatcher from recent turns in Yellowjackets and the critical hit Heretic. Thatcher gives her all to the role of Iris, threading the needle between an overly doting girlfriend and a righteously indignant survivor. She also has an excellent comedic delivery. Thatcher excels at subtle facial acting to communicate the complex emotions she’s wrestling with and it’s a joy to watch her full dramatic range. Really, this is a prime spotlight for both Thatcher and Quaid (Scream, The Boys). Quaid does what he does best, playing an everyman and a loveable dork. As the film progresses, Quaid’s facade melts away, exposing his true pathetic, chauvinist nature as a facsimile of every disappointing date that a woman has experienced.

Rounding out the cast is Harvey Guillen (What We Do in the Shadows) as hapless friend, Eli. Guillen is a joy to watch as he portrays an earnest friend with secrets of his own pulled into an increasingly spiraling plot. His partner Patrick is played by Lucas Gage (Dead Boy Detectives, Smile 2). As the plot unfolds, Gage gets to switch gears and remains a highlight for the film. Megan Suri (It Lives Inside) as Kat is a jaded foil to Iris, serving as a reminder that human women are commoditized by men in ways depressingly indistinguishable from sex robots. Suri brings a bit more depth to Kat than one would think necessary for this kind of film, and that’s beneficial to the movie. All of the cast serves a core function, both enriching its narrative and the world that Hancock is building.

Hancock’s direction tells a concise, satisfying story. The cinematography is cast in a warm color palette uncharacteristic of a horror or sci-fi flick. While the film is limited to a singular location, Hancock never makes his first outing feel hampered by the flick’s modest budget. A stand-out device is his use of clever smash cuts to break up the moments of tension with laugh-out-loud comedy. The director of the cast knows what to do with the characters he has written and has a clear vision and story that needs to be communicated. If a singular detail had to be criticized, it would have been nice to spend just a bit more time with some of the side characters to know what makes them tick, but honestly, that would just be nitpicking.

Companion serves as a cautionary tale for our culture, growing both technologically advanced and less human toward each other, while simultaneously weaving a sharp social commentary of the sexist manifestation of this in its narrative. The depth is there if the audience needs to search for it, yet it is light enough fare to be a movie one can also enjoy at face value. Its true strength is in being a crowd-pleaser that really has something in it for everyone. Companion is not easily definable by binary genre standards, but is an undeniably fun experience from start to finish.

Author rating: 8/10

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