Blending horror with comedy is both a tried-and-true formula for success and also a balancing act that can easily fall on its face. Lean too much into horror and the comedic elements feel jarring, lean too much on comedy and the impact of a movie’s terror is entirely overlooked. Given that humor and fear are some of the most primal emotions, attempting to conjure those in an audience is more difficult than many expect, which is exactly what the new movie Companion feels like such a success: it manages to deliver compelling characters we invest in, both reveling in their demise and cheering for their persistence.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In an alternate reality or the not-too-distant future, Iris (Sophie Thatcher) falls for Josh (Jack Quaid) in a way that mirrors the most endearing of rom-coms. Their relationship does run into trouble, though, as not all of Josh’s friends approve of the couple, namely due to the fact that Iris is actually a sentient robot, a fact that only Iris herself learns of in the film’s opening act.
One of 2024’s more thrilling horror-comedies was Abigail from filmmakers Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin. Despite the film’s effectiveness in its own right, the majority of Abigail‘s marketing materials teased how the titular little girl was a vampire, a fact which her kidnappers only learned about after a significant amount of the film’s run time had passed. Similarly, Companion‘s marketing materials have undercut the impact of Iris realizing she’s a robot, but as compared to last year’s vampire-centric movie, this film has plenty more twists and turns than what has already been revealed ahead of its release.
In addition to the film’s marketing materials teasing a major plot twist, it also boasted that it was produced by Barbarian filmmaker Zach Cregger. While Companion was written and directed by Drew Hancock, it does make good on the implication it is just as twisted as Cregger’s 2022 breakout hit. Whereas Barbarian had some entirely visceral, narrative-changing reveals, Hancock’s movie doesn’t have to rely on such dramatic tonal shifts and offers up a much more empathetic experience. Companion isn’t without its heroes and villains, but Hancock’s script and direction will see the audience shifting their allegiances ever so slightly over the course of the narrative.
It’s no surprise that Thatcher has earned herself a major following in the genre world, having impressed audiences with her work on Showtime’s Yellowjackets and in films like The Boogeyman and Heretic. What really makes her performance in Companion, though, is her nuance and restraint in conveying a range of emotions as Iris. She brings the required warmth and charm to make audiences root for Iris and Josh’s relationship, but it’s not until key points in the narrative in which the robot’s operating system is tweaked that we understand the full reach of Thatcher’s skills. More specifically, as Iris’s attributes are manipulated, Thatcher modifies her physical and vocal performance to become more or less humanized, helping sell the idea that Iris is arguably more human than some of the other characters in the movie. Similarly, with Quaid having won over audiences as the affable Hughie in Prime Video’s The Boys, he gets to channel all of his boyish charm to romance Iris, while also offering glimmers of potentially using that charm to distract people from his true tendencies. The supporting cast of Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillรฉn, and Rupert Friend all also do their part in selling layered, complicated, and often hilarious figures.
The premise of the movie might feel reactionary or timely, but there’s a long history of sci-fi films exploring what would happen if A.I. gained sentience. Whether it be 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator, Ex Machina, or the recent crowdpleaser M3GAN, the notion of technology outpacing humanity has frightened us for decades. This doesn’t at all mean that Companion feels redundant, though, as it instead highlights how the movie manages to find a much more grounded entry point for a premise. Not only is Josh’s depression and desperation entirely believable, but so is the concept of a tech company developing human-passing automatons. Also making Companion stand apart is how fully invested in Iris’s journey we become. Plenty of non-human characters have excited fans in horror movies, though while there’s much delight to be had in witnessing artificial lifeforms laying waste to the humans in front of them, we empathize with Iris in ways entirely unique to her journey.
Companion is undoubtedly a genre movie, not only in its premise but also in its execution, yet the one realm in which it might not fully excite horror fans is in its overall sense of terror. Namely, there’s not really anything outright scary, and that’s not entirely a bad thing. Witnessing a culture in which robots can pass for humans is frightening, but almost all of the film’s tension comes from Iris and what her fate could be. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, depending on a viewer’s tastes, but anyone anticipating an R-rated adventure full of motorized mayhem should temper expectations. Luckily, we’re instead given a smart, silly, and nuanced take on romance and relationships in the digital age which manages to offer up equal amounts of laughs and violence. The entire cast is quirky and endearing, but Companion is fully Sophie Thatcher’s vehicle as her Iris helps cement the words of Rob Zombie into stone by proving she is more human than human.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Companion lands in theaters on January 31st.