Overview
During a weekend getaway at a secluded lakeside estate, a group of friends finds themselves entangled in a web of secrets, deception, and advanced technology. As tensions rise and loyalties are tested, they uncover unsettling truths about themselves and the world around them.
Produced by the team behind Barbarian, and directed by Drew Hancock, Companion is a sci-fi thriller with elements of horror that sees Sophie Thatcher as Iris, who starts the film recounting the first time she met Josh (Jack Quaid), the love of her life. Some time later the couple head to spend a weekend with some friends in an isolated lake house owned by the wealthy boyfriend of one of their friends, Sergey. Iris feels uneasy with the group, but agrees to make an effort as the weekend means so much to Josh, but after Sergey makes advances towards her, resulting in her fatally retaliating, the revelation that Iris is a ‘companion’ – an AI artificial human that Josh ordered – sets off a chain of events that rapidly spiral out of control, as secrets around the weekend start to unravel.
All the best sci fi explores themes relevant to current society, and Companion is no exception. There is the obvious look at AI and real-life models, and the inherent risks despite safety features that such artificial humans can bring with them. There are also aspects of identity being explored here, as Iris questions her reality and who she actually is as a ‘person’. But primarily, underneath the sci-fi layers, there is a pretty heavy story about domestic abuse and coercive relationships that smartly plays out throughout. Iris is ‘programmed’ to love Josh, and this programming means he can casually disregard her feelings, and force her to obey him. Anyone who has been in, or seen someone they care for trapped in, a coercively abusive relationship will immediately identify some of the power play being brought in here. The overall tale plays very much like a Black Mirror episode, using a sci-fi and tech based framework to tell some powerful social commentary.
If all this sounds quite dark and bleak, don’t worry as there is a delicious level of humour to balance things out, in an admittedly dark manner, and the cast are magnificent in giving us reason to care and follow the unravelling threads as they play out. Thatcher and Quaid are marvellous in the central pairing, really selling the love story beginning, before getting a chance to both play twisted and darker as the film plays out. Quaid is great in this kind of role as even when you feel you should hate him, there’s just something curiously affable about him that part of you still almost wants him to redeem himself – again, a coercive charm that serves the abusive relationship aspect well. In the surrounding cast, Megan Suri is immediately unlikable as Kat, for all the right reasons, and Sergey is hilariously cliched as the wealthy boyfriend with a mysterious past. The true joy comes from Harvey Guillen as Eli and his partner Patrick, played by Lukas Gage. The pair are hilariously perfect together, with Guillen dishing out a similar approach to this role that he utlised to make us love him as Guillermo in What We Do In The Shadows.
Companion is an early strong start to 2025, delivering a film that isn’t entirely original in the themes it explores, but is creative and fun enough in how it delivers them to make them feel fresh – much in the same way Barbarian toyed with old tropes in fresh ways – and is a great way to pass 97 minutes.