COMPANION, SATIRE, AND TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS

Uncork your favorite bottle of wine, jailbreak your fleshlight, and ask the question, is COMPANION the first horror hit of 2025? 

FROM THE COMPANION OFFICIAL WEBSITE: New Line Cinema—the studio that brought you “The Notebook”—and the unhinged creators of “Barbarian” cordially invite you to experience a new kind of love story…

Written and directed by Drew Hancock (“My Dead Ex,” “Suburgatory”), “Companion” stars Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets,” “The Boogeyman”), Jack Quaid (“The Boys,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”), Lukas Gage (“Smile 2,” “Dead Boy Detectives”), Megan Suri (“Never Have I Ever,” “It Lives Inside”), Harvey Guillén (“What We Do in the Shadows,” “Blue Beetle”) and Rupert Friend (“High Desert,” “Asteroid City”). The film is produced by the filmmakers behind “Barbarian”—Raphael Margules, J.D. Lifshitz, Zach Cregger and Roy Lee. The executive producers are Tracy Rosenblum and Jamie Buckner.

The cinematographer is Eli Born (“The Boogeyman,” “Hellraiser”). The production designer is Scott Kuzio (“Dumb Money,” the “Fear Street” trilogy). The editors are Brett W. Bachman (“The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Pig”) and Josh Ethier (“Don’t Move,” “Orphan: First Kill”). The costume designer is Vanessa Porter (“The Toxic Avenger,” “Archive 81”). The composer is Hrishikesh Hirway (“Song Exploder,” “Everything Sucks!”). The music supervisor is Rob Lowry (“Do Revenge,” “Miracle Workers”). The casting is by Nancy Nayor (“Saw X,” “Barbarian”).

New Line Cinema presents A Boulderlight Pictures Production, In Association With Vertigo Entertainment/Subconscious: “Companion.” The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, in theaters only nationwide on January 31, 2025, and internationally beginning on 8 January 2025.

The surprise horror hit of 2025 is upon us, peeps and perps and those of you who don’t give a fuck. One part EX MACHINA, One part HER, and one part crime-caper farce, COMPANION comes out of the gate swinging for the fences. And it knocks the ball out of the park, setting the bar fairly high for horror films this year. It answers a question no one ever had: What if Wes Anderson directed EX MACHINA? Drew Hancock’s first feature length film is a well made, and often funny movie that’s less a commentary on the evils of AI and robots and more of an essay on toxic relationships and how people are just greedy, selfish motherfuckers. It’s not that Hancock doesn’t go down the Terminator/Westworld route, because he does, it’s just presented in a more, um, controlled manner. Which also lends to the central theme of toxicity in relationships.

Hancock doesn’t steer away from the truth. All good satires punch their problem straight in the face, and COMPANION does it with a round house.  It’s BONNIE AND CLYDE, or rather CLYDE AND BONNIE (see what I did here?), putting Clyde in front to show some sort of superiority over Bonnie? The same can be said about Iris and Jack, or Jack and Iris as the case is. Or Kat and Sergey (see what I did THERE?), or even Eli and Patrick (uh hum…). You see, toxic relationships aren’t just a cis thing, they’re gay, too, and COMPANION doesn’t shy away from this. Seeing Harvey Guillén embrace the gayness WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS skirts around is a joy. 

Labels galore are thrown around so we know where we stand. Josh’s “fuckbot” Iris. Eli’s “Fuckboi” robot Patrick that (the one SPOILER ALERT this piece needs) goes full on Terminator at one point. Sergey’s “girlfriend” Kat, because Sergey is married, of course (all Russian oligarch’s have a side mistress, right?). ‘His hands are dirty’ – she alludes to him having criminal behaviour, when in reality he simply owns a peat moss farm. And then there’s Kat’s jealousy of fuckbots… cos they might put her out of a job (ie: using men for their money). And beside, is it morally cheating if the thing you’re fucking isn’t alive and is just an algorithm  trained to react to you?

The film is brilliantly cast. One issue many modern horror films have is unlikable central characters. This film bucks that trend by casting some of our favorite television nice guys as horrible people. Except they act like the nice guys they are on TV. Jack Quaid (Stuey from THE BOYS) and Harvey Guillén (Gizmo from WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS) thrive in their villainous roles, but they do it by staying in nice guy character. This makes their criminality a bit more, well, criminal. I mean—GASP!—How could Stuey or Gizmo commit such heinous acts? But they can and they do so with the same smile on their faces that we’ve come to love.

But ultimately, it’s Sophie Thatcher who makes this film the success it will become. You can’t help but like her naivety and the kindness of her voice. Which is funny, because the thing that made EX MACHINA work was Alicia Vikander’s performance, making you believe the robot was a real girl. If the robot isn’t believable as a person, neither of these stories work.

Hancock’s experience writing television shows here. The dialogue, the mannerisms of the characters, all of the incidental humor, it all comes together to make this work. The conversations are often chilling, as the conspirators talk about their plans in a nonchalant manner. And though it’s not a splatter film, COMPANION easily could have gone in that direction. Hancock deftly pulls away when the blood gets flowing, using it more for a comedy device than to extract terror from viewers. I have to wonder if we will get a “director’s cut” at some point on home video.

Speaking of home video, I know the current trend is for movies to show up in your living room two or three weeks after their theatrical offering… don’t wait for streaming on this one, folks. The buzz you’re hearing is legit. Go see it this weekend. The happiest days of Iris’s life were the days she met Jack, and the day she killed him.  And I’m here to tell you, the happiest day of your winter will be the day you decided to see COMPANION.