Tags:
Film: Companion
Year: 2025
Director: Drew Hancock
Writer: Drew Hancock
Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid and Lukas Gage
Review:
This was a film where the beginning of the trailer caught my attention. I figured out the title, saw it was horror and then added it to my list to see. Now thanks to social media, the reveal of Sophie Thatcher’s character was spoiled for me. The issue there was that I was focusing on the language of things. I’ll tread lightly to not reveal anything, but something I wanted to share here. I did see this on the Monday after its opening weekend when time finally allowed me.
Synopsis: a billionaire’s death sets off a chain of events for Iris (Thatcher) and her friends during a weekend trip to his lakeside estate.
We begin this story in a grocery store. Iris is shopping and goes to the produce. It is there she sees Josh (Jack Quaid). He makes a fool of himself by knocking over a bunch of apples, which causes Iris to smile. She then wakes up, in a car with him. She was having a dream about how they first met and now they’re a couple. Josh has a self-driving car and he’s quite charming. Iris is nervous though. She doesn’t think his friends like her, to which Josh tries to alleviate her concerns. He does point out that one in question, Kat (Megan Suri), doesn’t like anyone.
They arrive and Josh is shocked. The place is bigger than he expected. It is also farther out in the middle of nowhere. This place belongs to Sergey (Rupert Friend). What we’ll learn as this goes on is that he’s not a nice guy. He is married, but cheating on his wife with Kat who is his girlfriend. He is also Russian. Eli (Harvey Guillén) is making dinner and his boyfriend is also here, Patrick (Lukas Gage). Much like Iris was worried about, Kat is cold toward her.
Regardless, this group has a fun night of drinking, dancing and just hanging out. The next morning, Josh is hungover. It is here we truly start to glimpse that there is something not quite right with Iris. She wants to go down to the beach, but Josh isn’t ready. She does go without him. It is there she discovers a knife in her pocket. Sergey joins her and he is forward with advances. This turns violent as he is the person from the synopsis. Iris goes inside, covered in blood. She tries to explain to everyone what happened. It is here that we learn the truth about her. There is more going on under the surface with this group as this bad situation turns even worse.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that I rather enjoyed the set up here. We subtly get introduced that technology plays a big role here. Josh has a self-driving car. Despite how far out into the woods the cabin is, it is high-tech inside. It is funny as well that Josh makes a comment that he was told it was rustic. This house instead is modern. Since this does so much to normalize it, it is less jarring with reveals that come after that. I did appreciate that.
Now that I’ve set that up, I’ll bring up again that the first reveal of the movie was spoiled for me ahead of seeing it. The trailer might have had a line in it, but since I didn’t watch the whole thing, I can’t confirm. I do know that I saw a comment from someone on social media that gave it away. It didn’t ruin it though; I will say that. There are hints leading up to the reveal. Since I knew, I was looking for them. One deals with the weather. That made me chuckle. In defense of everything that I’m coming down on, at the time of the rising action with the first act coming to a close is when we know. It is from there that it leans into this aspect of the film and there is much more to it.
Sticking with there being more to it, there is social commentary here that I want to explore. This is looking at toxic masculinity, bullying and misogyny. Iris is infatuated with Josh. She is worried that his friends don’t like her. The only one who doesn’t is Kat. There is more to this, but I’ll digress. It is here where we see bullying. It makes for an interesting debate with the reveal though. There is then toxic masculinity throughout. Josh is a ‘nice guy’. The deeper into this we get, we see that he is entitled. How he uses people around him is something that he accuses Kat of. My only issue with the exploration of these ideas is that it is ham-fisted. Now I do think part of that is to be sure we’re fully on board with Iris by the time she fights back. I’m not sure we need it though and it gets in the way.
Let’s then shift over to discussing the acting as I think that helps make this work. Thatcher is great here in her role. This isn’t an easy one to do though because of the reveal. I thought that she nailed it. She’s been in a good handful of horror early in her career and I’m hoping she does more. Quaid also works here as her boyfriend. There is this natural awkwardness that is charming. He also can turn on arrogance when it is needed. He also impressed me with his character arch here. Gage, Suri, Guillén and Friend were all good as this group that were in the cabin. Other than that, I did like the cameo by Marc Menchaca as a deputy. The acting here was good across the board.
All that is left then is filmmaking. The first thing that I rather enjoy is capturing the isolation of where this is set. There is a dense forest. It is miles to the next house and even farther to get into town. There is still a main road nearby though which allows other characters to come. The cinematography and framing were good to capture this. I thought that the effects we got were solid as well. There is CGI here, but how it is used was good. The practical effects were solid. The look of the blood, after effects of attacks and things of this nature were solid. Other than that, I thought the soundtrack fit what was needed.
In conclusion, I rather enjoyed this movie. There is a solid premise here. It is a story where we see how issues can arise with a plan that complicates things farther and farther. The acting here is good to bring the characters to life. Thatcher leads the way there along with Quaid. The rest push them to where they end up. I thought that this was also well made with the cinematography, framing, setting and the effects leading the way. My biggest issue is that the social commentary is just a bit too in the face. Scaling it back would make it more subtle and less preachy. It doesn’t need that to work. I still would recommend giving this a watch as it is poignant.
My Rating: 8 out of 10