Companion is a difficult film to write about. There is a main plot detail at the end of first act, one that is substantial, but kind of a surprise. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone – it’s more fun if you go in not knowing anything about it. All I knew was that it was from the producers who brought us Barbarian, which was a surprise hit in 2022, and I was in for it.
So, what can I say? How about this: it is a love story between Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid).
The pair go for a weekend vacation at a lake house with a few of Josh’s friends: Kat (Megan Suri), who doesn’t like Iris; Sergey (Rupert Friend), her Russian boyfriend and the owner of the house; and love-struck couple Patrick (Lukas Gage) and Eli (Harvey Gullien).
Things go well until they don’t, and Sergey attacks Iris. She kills him in self-defense. And this sets off the rest of the film, which includes chases through the forest, torturous meals, and plenty of murder.
The acting across the board was great. Sergey felt gross; Kat felt like the stereotypical “mean girl.” Iris was a bit heavy with the whole romance bit, but that may just be because of my intolerance to romance. Josh, however, seemed perfectly natural with his love. Patrick and Eli were so in love it was comical. Sophie Thatcher, who recently starred in Heretic, the horror film about faith, is my new favorite Final Girl.
I wouldn’t call the plot point a “twist.” It’s just more of what the film is really about. It is a surprise, but it doesn’t feel out of place. The premise isn’t anything that hasn’t been done before in one way or another, but it is presented in a clean, fresh way that just works.
Writer/director Drew Hancock does very well with his first feature. Nothing gives away the “surprise” until it is very obviously time to reveal. His background is in comedy, which comes across beautifully. While it’s not really a horror/comedy, Companion is definitely lighthearted. It is impossible to take this cast of characters seriously. The situation the characters are in has them acting so big it is comical, and yet wholly believable.
There were a few minor logical problems I had with a couple aspects of the film – all relating to the surprise, so I won’t go into them here. For the most part, everything made sense, and much of the logic was well-placed. Nothing pulled me out of the movie.
Companion is not nearly as gory or horror-filled as Barbarian was. It’s not dark or brooding. There are no jump scares. There are a lot of rom-com notes in this film, which can be frustrating as a horror fan. I knew that the murder was coming, but I had to get through the mushy, cutesy bits first. Luckily that doesn’t last long. I have a very low tolerance for rom-com drabble. It’s the kind of thing where if you were really into horror, but your partner wasn’t, they could probably be convinced to go see the film based on the trailer, and the amount of googly eyes that are exchanged there.
Ultimately, this is a horror movie – but it’s the kind delicate with blood, eschewing jump scares, and steering well clear of creepy bathrooms to lock potential victims into. Instead, this is the kind of mild horror film that you could easily take non-horror people to (along the lines of Get Out), and I think they would take something good away from it. Companion is a good starter horror film.
