Companion (2025)

Blade humper

Companion offers a curious stew of themes and genres that is sure to annoy large percentages of audiences. It’s billed as a horror film, but it’s never scary. It has a classic sci-fi robot-becoming-sentient theme, but has no interest considering the nature and blurry edges of the human soul. The niche that it most cleanly falls into is actually slasher; at least, it has the cadence of the subgenre, with a murder every ten to fifteen minutes that constantly shrinks the cast. But even that’s not quite right: Companion pays lip service to the underlying fear and fascination with sex as a mirror of physical mutilation that is the cornerstone of slashers since in Halloween, although it ditches basically all the steam and innuendo that its premise hints at. And we’re in the killer’s perspective for most of the runtime, so she’s no mere Michael Myers Shape.

Poke and prod at Companion, and it’s really just a tight and twisty comic thriller with a shiny glaze of near future android sci-fi as flavor and setting. This happens to be a pitch that would get me in the door. It’s a fun piece of popcorn entertainment that’s neither as introspective nor erotic as you might expect “sexbot becomes self aware” would be.

…Oops, I just spoiled the end-of-the-first-act twist of Companion. Its protagonist is a pleasure android. Of course, if you’ve seen the trailer… or spent 10 seconds considering the title and poster… or read the tagline used in all the marketing (”Find someone made just for you!”), you were already spoiled. Companion has what I’m now in the habit of calling the Abigail problem which is when the script acts like its hook is a mid-film surprise, but that very hook is what’s most likely to get people curious about the film. It is thus marketed as such.

Director-writer Drew Hancock goes neither fish nor fowl, not exactly hiding the premise but still treating it as a bit of intrigue for the first 25 minutes, though only barely. Human Josh (Jack Quaid) has a nickname for his robo plaything Iris (Sophie Thatcher) of “Beep Boop,” and the characters talk around Iris in very obvious “she’s not human” ways. It’s an awkward, fumbled start to Companion, and it’s not until the cards are on the table after the inciting death that the film really picks up.

Once we get past the halfhearted gotcha, the middle hour or so of Companion is really blissful. Hancock stages the cat-and-mouse story with wit and energy. Characters act either rationally or irrationally within defined character flaws. Worldbuilding details are set up for well-timed payoffs in ways that aren’t even obvious loaded-gun teases. Some kills are surprising and creative, though a bit of gravity is missing with such a frivolous tone. The story goes a few places I didn’t quite expect, both geographically and thematically, and these diversions always result in a fun new incident that builds on what’s already come.

Best of all, the movie refuses to point at and verbally diagnose its themes and moral quandaries. It is content to just be a fun little plot. If you start thinking things like “men sure do like to simultaneously exploit women then fall victim to their feminine charms,” or “lives driven by corporate tech commodify us,” or “relationships without healthy consent and power balances strip our humanity away,” that’s on you.

Then, in the final fifteen minutes, the story hits a logical endpoint, and Josh (unsurprisingly less wholesome than the first few minutes present) starts monologuing like Syndrome in The Incredibles. The story’s pace and elegance comes to a halt, and even with a few memorable images and moments in the closing stretch, the film goes out on a sour note. Oh well.

Thatcher really has a lot of fun in the lead part, playing Iris sympathetically but with sufficient wit and danger that you can believe her moments of razor-sharp, quick-acting violence. Quaid leans into his punchable face persona with ease. The supporting cast all bring life to sufficiently well-drawn characters. Harvey Guillen is a comedy character actor to keep your eye on; I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing him in every other comedy film in the next couple years.

I enjoy the film’s look well enough, too. Set almost entirely at daytime, it’s clean and easy to follow, with just a little of insidious pastel undertones like A Simple Favor to match Iris’s sweetheart facade and garments. The production, from the costuming to the gore — and especially when those two collide, including a very memorable image of Iris soaked in blood while wearing a jumper — is solid.

While I appreciate Companion’s light tone, I think what’s most missing from the film is sexual charge. Other than one or two scenes, you wouldn’t really guess that Iris is a sexual companion were it not explicitly stated in dialogue. Any sense that Josh is driven by a covetous, horny control fantasy, which should basically be a given for this premise, is absent. It’s like Hancock pitched the film as “let’s do M3GAN but kinky” but then forgot to add the kink. And so the result is just too disposable to sink its claws in. Even if you smile while you watch, like I did, you’ll quickly forget Companion.

Companion is not quite a Dumpuary diamond-in-the-rough, but it’s a competent and quick-moving slice of fun. It isn’t exactly smart or daring, but it also doesn’t pretend to be. It’s satisfied to entertain you for 95 minutes, and that’s both a goal and a runtime I’m happy to co-sign.

Is It Good?

Good (5/8)

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Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.