The less you know about Drew Hancock’s feature directorial debut, Companion, the better. At least, this is what the marketing campaign has touted ever since it released its first trailer and screened the movie early late last year to generate the same buzz as Zach Cregger’s Barbarian. You know, the type of movie whose marketing is solely based on people telling you not to watch the marketing? That’s it. Fittingly enough, Cregger is one of the movie’s executive producers and promises a horror comedy whose secrets are best left to be unraveled with a sold-out crowd on the same wavelength as you.
Yet, why did Warner Bros. spoil a significant plot point that would’ve been better left revealed in the movie for its second trailer? Of course, there are more surprises that the marketing did not reveal, but Iris (Sophie Thatcher), the love of Josh’s (Jack Quaid) life being a robot, seemed like a pretty big thing to divulge mere weeks before the film came out. Now, if this would be introduced right out of the gate, it wouldn’t be that big of a problem. However, this specific plot point is meant to shock you and repurpose Companion as more than a simple horror-comedy where the two are stuck in a situation beyond their control because it begins to examine interior feelings through the prism of a character who isn’t human.
Since the trailer revealed it, talking about it is fair game. Iris is indeed a robot, or, more aptly, a companion built for emotional attachment, who “shares” a passionate romance with Josh. Now, the reason why Josh is in a relationship with a machine has not been spoiled, which this review will also not unveil. I also won’t touch on a detailed plot summary, which most reviews do, but everything is kept under wraps. This reviewer tries not to watch any trailers before seeing a movie (though there are times when this is impossible, especially when attending any public screening) because they always show far too much or shape how the film is structured in a specific direction. When it is not what the trailers advertise, one may feel disappointed in having been “cheated” by what the marketing promised, especially if it’s paced differently than its multiple advertisements, which most films undoubtedly are.
When you watch a movie cold, knowing as little as possible, your experience is way more rewarding compared to a moviegoer who saw every trailer because you have no preconceptions or biases that may affect your viewing in any way. I saw the second Companion trailer in front of Wolf Man and found it baffling that a movie enshrined in so much mystery couldn’t be bothered to keep Iris’ true nature a secret for the audience to discover. However, I’m relieved that this is not the biggest twist Hancock, who also wrote the screenplay, had in store for the audience. He smartly keeps the overarching narrative and its multiple permutations a true secret for us to experience this aspect of the picture on our own.
Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid Shine in Companion
At first, Companion starts as a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy until it morphs into a much darker and violent proposition. Some will laud Hancock's big narrative swings, while others will be put off. I, on the other hand, am somewhat in the middle. Some aspects of the film work exceptionally well, mainly regarding Sophie Thatcher’s fierce lead turn as Iris, an android much more intelligent than her controlling “boyfriend” believes. Quaid also excels at playing characters with a somber side to them, as he illustrated in a big way in Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s 2022 reboot of Scream.
In Companion, he seems far more comfortable portraying such a figure because his layers are unpeeled progressively. Josh doesn’t take a sharp left turn compared to Richie Kirsch in Scream. He’s always been a terrible human being, and the thrill of seeing Quaid play such a character is how he slowly infers on his insidious nature right from Iris and Josh’s meet-cute before everything comes to light. Both Thatcher and Quaid are why we’re compelled to watch Companion from beginning to end, even if it takes the road of implausibility by attempting to top its twist with one crazier than the last. Sometimes, it results in a moment of inspiration or culminates a scene with an actively shocking turn designed to elicit a reaction out of us. More often than not, however, it lands with a thud.
I appreciate Hancock establishing a clinical aesthetic from the get-go and never straying away from it even as Companion gets more “bonkers” (but not really). Scenes that contain a gratuitous amount of violence are shot and edited with such minute precision that one can feel each stab, punch, and gunshot in our system, particularly on an IMAX screen. Yet, as the film progresses, one begins to experience a profound disconnection with the close-knitted character relationship Hancock wants to build with not only Iris and Josh but with supporting players Patrick (Lukas Gage), Kat (Megan Suri), Eli (Harvey Guillén), and Sergey (Rupert Friend).
Gage and Guillén do a great job of playing the more “comic-relief” characters—while Friend impresses in an against-type role. Unfortunately, Suri’s Kat is a complete shell, which is a shame, considering she plays a significant role in setting the inciting incident in motion. Once that’s set up, Kat completely disappears from the picture and only returns for a “surprising” scene that admittedly has a jolting impact, though not the emotional potency Hancock wished it did. It feels particularly frustrating, too, since, without Kat, there would be no movie, although Josh does have a more prominent presence than he was initially introduced as.
Part of the enjoyment of watching a movie like Companion is attempting to guess what will happen next and always trying to be one step ahead of what Hancock has in store for us. In that regard, Hancock succeeds. I had no idea how this entire affair would wrap up, obviously with knowing one tiny detail the trailer spoiled. Even if you’ve seen the trailer against your will, it’s hard not to be somewhat riveted by what is ultimately in front of us, no matter how flawed the narrative may be, and how underdeveloped the side protagonists are. Will it be as memorable of an experience as Barbarian? Unfortunately, Cregger’s film felt like a lighting-in-a-bottle event that won’t be replicated anytime soon. And as solidly made as Companion may be, it just doesn’t have the same juice—or freshness—that Cregger brought to the table, no matter how many directions this 97-minute comedy takes.
Companion is now playing in theatres.