Funereal Plots
Horror Cinema Reviews

Matthew M. Bartlett

Companion

Writer/Director: Drew Hancock

Not long into Companion, a movie recommended by a lot of people on social media, I hit pause and posted: “So far, Companion (streaming on Max) would be a lot better if they had even remotely believable characters doing even remotely believable things. What gathering of like 6 people puts on music and dances? ‘It’ll be like Stepford Wives meets M3GAN, but bad!’”

Mea big time culpa. Once this movie settled into its groove as an over-the-top SF-horror-comedy, I was fully on board and issuing retractions left and right. To be fair, the movie starts with a very ‘90s monologue that’s right out of a How to Write a Screenplay – grab ‘em with the opening scene with a shocking line – this scene is narrated by Iris (Sophie Thatcher) talking about meeting her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) for the first time.

We then flash back to the couple going to their friend Kat’s lake house to hang out with friends—a genial gay couple and Kat’s boyfriend Sergey, an annoyingly over-the-top character, an older, Russian gangster type—broadly played and as out of place in this movie as a circus clown in a military parade. This character was another strike against the movie.

But we don’t have to deal with him for long before he attempts to assault Iris, and she kills him. And then we find out Iris is a “companion” robot. We learn how Iris’s boyfriend was using her to facilitate robbing Sergey. And we learn how the robot is controlled, modulated, and adjusted, and those sequences are so clever, and so funny (especially when the newly AWOL Iris figures out how to use the app to up her intelligence to the highest setting) they salvage a clunky beginning and turn the movie around, turning it into an absolute blast to watch as amped up robots and humans war for Iris’s freedom.

I should mention first-rate performances by Harvey Guillén (you may know him from his excellent work on the show What We Do in the Shadows, and this is another strong role), Lukas Gage, and Jack Quaid, the latter of whom I disliked as an actor until I realized he was perfectly essaying a detestable character.

The best work, though, is done by Sophie Thatcher. Playing a robot with an independent streak can’t be easy, but she takes the role and runs with it. We root for her, become invested in her. There are a few surprises in Companion—I don’t dare spoil them—and it really has my strong recommendation. Just get past the first clunky 20 minutes or so, and you’ll be treated to one of the more entertaining and smart genre movies to come along in some time.