Writer/director Drew Hancock’s Companion is a challenging film to review sans spoilers (which, to be clear, I fully intend to attempt here). It’s a more exciting watch if you have no awareness of what is coming at the end of the first act, ready to upend everything you think you know about what’s going on – but more significantly, those events/revelations then turn the story in a whole new direction and start to unveil larger themes and beget even more twists… and I can’t ethically explore any it because you deserve to have the same cinematic experience that I did.
Companion
Release Date: January 31, 2025
Directed By: Drew Hancock
Written By: Drew Hancock
Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, and Rupert Friend
Rating: R for strong violence, sexual content, and language throughout
Runtime: 97 minutes
Those cards on the table, I suppose this review becomes a more enhanced trust exercise than your normal critique. I am going to refrain from explaining too much about the movie or revealing too many details, but I will laud it for the craftsmanship of the story and highly recommend seeing it at your first available opportunity. The heart is the adroit and clever script that constantly keeps you guessing and stoked to see what’s around the corner, but Hancock also demonstrates a tremendous ear for tone, the film deftly oscillating between horror and comedy, and the cast is both well-rounded and outstanding.
Companion stars Sophie Thatcher as Iris, a young woman who is head-over-heels for her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid). Although Iris doesn’t think that Josh’s friend’s like her – including the surly Kat (Megan Suri), the bubbly Eli (Harvey Guillén), and his chipper boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage) – they all get together at the beautiful lake house owned by Kat’s Russian billionaire boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend) for a weekend of rest and relaxation.
Because this is a horror film, however, you know that the rest and relaxation doesn’t end up coming. One moment of extreme tension leads to some brief violence that yields copious amounts of blood. The decision of how to react to this situation is complicated by both secrets and hidden motives possessed by the members of the friend group, creating to a tangled web that takes the movie down a wonderfully complex path.
Companion is a genre gumbo that surprises with both serious thrills and big laughs.
Companion is a film made with dark sensibilities, but it’s built to be fun – delighting in toying with the audience’s expectations and unfurling its ever more ominous plotting with the sun shining and a palette of pastels. You can’t help but smile broadly as the movie takes you by surprise with the new layers that are pulled back, and there is a plethora of witty dialogue and sight gags, but what’s vital is that it doesn’t undercut its drama and thrills with its comedy. Conversely, the humor opens the door to emotionally invest in the protagonists and antagonists, which has the effect of boosting the stakes. When it gets to the heavier and scarier material, you care.
As a genre exercise, the film isn’t nightmare-inducing horror, but it successfully earns its categorization via well-orchestrated tension and its strong character development. Iris’ fear is relatable from the outset, as I imagine most of us can relate to being an outsider brought in to interact with a new friend group, and as things spin further and further out of control, her peril becomes our own. Circumstances get worse and worse as she tries to find her way out of the escalating mess, and in doing so, it successfully hits your fear buttons.
Sophie Thatcher further establishes herself as a tremendous talent leading the fantastic cast of Companion.
Boosting every aspect of the effort is the excellence of Sophie Thatcher, who continues to impress as one of the most exciting talents of her generation. Her genre bona fides are already well-established, from her terrific work on the series Yellowjackets to her great work in features like The Boogeyman and Heretic, but this role comes equipped with special challenges, and she is phenomenal. Without saying too much (I’m still trying to not give the game away here), the character undergoes a significant transformation over the course of the story as she makes some startling discoveries, and it’s wowing to witness Thatcher express that evolution. If you’re not already a fan of hers going into Companion, you will certainly leave the film as one.
Thatcher is indisputably the movie’s greatest asset, but she isn’t wholly carrying the work on her shoulders, as she is supported by a terrific ensemble. Expanding on his vibe from The Boys and Scream, Jack Quaid further proves himself particularly adept at finding a perfect middle ground between goofiness and edginess that makes us love his screen presence but express touches of concern about his character’s larger motivations.
The latter is magnified by the subtle sinister vibe of Megan Suri’s Kat, who presents a mysterious antagonistic attitude toward Iris from the jump, and Harvey Guillén delivers his special brand of sweetness that also eventually gets paired with a dollop of darkness. I’d also love to offer significant kudos to the performance by Lukas Gage… but things would get a touch risky from a spoiler-phobic perspective, so I’ll simply say that he brilliantly handles some of the story’s biggest surprises with a turn that blossoms in big and unexpected ways.
I’ve done my best here to both critique and recommend Companion without spilling any of its secrets – but even if you have been exposed to some of the film’s plot developments from marketing materials, you should know that this is not a single-twist adventure and that there are still plenty of surprises packed inside. It’s another exciting addition to the fantastic on-going renaissance for original horror movies, and a cinematic treat for the early weeks of 2025.