When Iris (Sophie Thatcher) goes for a weekend away with her new boyfriend (Jack Quaid), she defends herself from an attack by their host and discovers she’s embroiled in an elaborate plot that sees her desperately try to escape from the isolated lakeside property.
Companion is a satirical horror that starts where films like Blade Runner and Ex_Machina left off, and it is an absolute riot. It’s a film that’s almost impossible to discuss without spoilers, so I can only write in the most oblique terms. If you have seen nothing about this film before reading this, then avoid learning any more about it and just take my word that you have to see it.
Iris’s true nature is revealed early on in the film but not knowing what it is is still fun. What is genuinely great about this film is that it assumes you’re au fait with the incredibly complex ethical implications it’s exploring. There is a plainly feminist subtext to the film, but its surface text is so fascinating that it never feels even slightly hectoring. Interestingly, the film relies on you taking Iris’s side because she seems vulnerable and wronged, but from the perspective of the other characters, it is quite possible to see Iris’s predicament as basically irrelevant. The other characters, in fact, are really the ones who are up for scrutiny. One of the film’s better tricks is writing people that seem bumbling and laughable but gradually become total monsters as their ability to outsource their evil is replaced by a need to directly commit it.
Companion is a film that actually doesn’t ask any metaphysical questions about what you’re seeing, but just relies on your basic sympathy for the suffering. Questions that could be asked are “what makes you human?”, “what is free will in a mechanistic universe?” and “where are we headed with technology?”, but it’s far more interested in picking at human nature in all its selfishness and cruelty. Do actions count if indulged vicariously by means of technology? What does indulging darker impulses really reveal about you? Like all great science fiction, it uses the future to explore the present. This is a violent, frequently disturbing film that knows exactly how you will react to what it’s serving up and runs with it expertly.
The performances here are fantastic. Sophie Thatcher plays her (very difficult) part to perfection with expertly controlled tics and expressions, while Jack Quaid modulates his character through an arc that will shock you. Harvey Guillén plays a simultaneously likeable and detestable boyfriend to the seemingly oblivious Lukas Gage, and Megan Suri is a hilariously cold bitch. Director Drew Hancock has really pulled off a little miracle here and you should certainly make an effort to avoid any media about it and just go and watch it.
