COMPANION (2025)

New in theaters from New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers!
Directed/Written by Drew Hancock.
Check out the trailer here!!

Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and her new boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) decide to spend a weekend with Jack’s friends at an extravagant mansion in the woods owned by a billionaire. Iris feels uncomfortable around Jack’s friends as she feels they look down on her and she would rather stay home and simply be with the one she loves. But the death of the billionaire sparks a series of events that will turn everything Iris knows completely upside down.

I’m being intentionally vague about COMPANION, but all you have to do is watch the trailer of the film and the big twist is revealed there, which I feel was a huge mistake. One of the best things about this film is that I saw the ambiguous first trailer and while I was inundated with various intriguing and perplexing imagery that made me want to see the movie, I still found myself not really knowing what it was about. Well, I guess with this newest and final trailer, the producers believed that the audiences needed to be spoon-fed the plot, but I don’t really want to get into specifics in this review and leave the surprises for the movie to tell you. The film is good enough to be recommended on its own without treating the audience as if they were idiots.

COMPANION is a wonderfully complex examination of love, relationships, and free will and how all of those concepts can be perverted in this modern day and age. Iris’ relationship with Jack is not that uncommon right now. While the twist definitely makes it a sci fi slash horror concept, the meat and bones of COMPANION really has more to do with blind love we all find ourselves stricken with at some point in our lives. It’s about those moments of clarity, where the blinders come off and the world concept we believe in being ripped away, in this case, with violent and bloody force. Jack is older than Iris, who herself is presented as quite naïve and uncomfortable with anyone other than Jack. How many times, in the early stages of a relationship, have you found yourself in that vulnerable state where your partner holds all of the cards and those rushes of excitement wave over you simply by being with that person? This film does a wonderful job of showing the horror of that feeling. That being in love is great, but it also can be terrifying, over-powering, and torturous by giving away one’s heart to someone else. Anyone who has felt heartbreak or just had a notion of fear that your partner will betray or leave you is going to relate to Iris’ plight in this film. It’s that emotional core that makes COMPANION such an effective film. Iris is vulnerable and open with Jack and that is a scary place to be.

COMPANION is filled with delightfully clever and witty dialog spoken by a truly talented cast. Jack Quaid, in his short career as an actor, has played a really nice variety of roles; ranging from the weak-shelled but strong-willed Huey from THE BOYS to the deceptive and dangerous Richie from 2022’s SCREAM. He embodies the everyman but uses that visage to really lure the audience in to show he’s got some teeth under that awkward smile. Here he plays a complex character. One who loves Iris, but also, maybe unconsciously, takes advantage of her, with these feelings expanding to toxic levels by the end of this film. On the flip side, Sophie Thatcher is newer to me. I loved her in HERETIC and have just started watching YELLOWJACKETS where she kicks ass as a younger version of Juliette Lewis’ character. She has the vulnerability and lack of confidence down pat as Iris, but it’s when she gains a little confidence and the upper hand, it’s satisfying watching that metamorphosis occur with her character.

Yes, COMPANION has twists and turns galore. But while avoiding outright spoiling that, I can still say it’s quite the rollercoaster ride from beginning to end. The strength of the cast, including the amazing Harvey Guillen from WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, the up-and-coming electricity from SMILE 2’s Lucas Gage, and the sublimely funny performance from Rupert Friend as the Russian billionaire Sergey, make these twists believable and worth following. The gore is a plenty and the blood does floweth, for sure. But what truly makes this movie a standout is that it deal with a collection of feelings that many are uncomfortable addressing in their own relationships.

COMPANION is a wonderfully crafted little horror/sci fi film that definitely deals with some issues one day we all will be faced with as technology continues to advance at such a rapid rate. But that’s all outer coating. Because it addresses the blind spots we all have when giving up a part of yourself to be in a relationship with another, it shows us a less than attractive aspect of how that vulnerability can result in the exploitation and in some cases, utter devastation of what makes us human.

I highly recommend you see COMPANION. Skip the trailer. It gives away far too much. It’s a fantastically smart and vibrant horror film brought to vivid life by some truly talented folks in front of and behind the camera.

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Music Written by Tim Heidecker
Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
(I do not own this music)