Companion (2025)

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Companion Movie Review
Companion is a 2025 science fiction horror comedy film directed by Drew Hancock and starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid. It’s such a competently made and wildly entertaining genre mash-up.
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“Go to sleep, Josh“
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A weekend getaway turns bloody and violent when a subservient android that’s built for human companionship goes haywire. First off, this is not the most original premise as just recently there was a short film called ‘I’m Not a Robot’ that is eerily similar to this one in premise alone. But this is a horror take on that SF concept with the final girl trope being perfectly incorporated.
It’s also very much a comedy. I actually laughed out loud numerous times as the humor was actually quite clever and self-aware in its commentary. The filmmaker knew exactly what he was doing and the meta elements were actually terrific. Those reminded me of the ‘Scream’ franchise in the best way possible.
So yes, the dialogue is quite solid. The acting is also pretty good. Sophie Thatcher was in ‘Heretic’, but here he was the lead and he did such a good job. I found her very believable in the role and her physicality was impressive. Jack Quaid managed to dispel those notions of nepotism at least for a bit due to his very charismatic turn as the villain of the piece. He was so well cast and so memorable here that he should be playing antagonists more often from now on.
I did not care for the other characters. Companion is mostly about the titular character while the rest are somewhat rushed. The friend characters were somewhat underdeveloped, though I appreciated the gay romance included and Patrick was surely quite a menacing android. The movie has a very conventional final confrontation ending, but everything that came before that was very strong.
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The highlight for me was the script that was surprisingly sophisticated for this type of movie. The movie succeeds least as a horror flick as it’s not particularly scary, but the SF elements were stellar as the robot’s functions were very well explained. Some plot points were convenient, but most made sense in the context of the story as the screenplay was very smart. The highlights include trapped in the car sequence and the scene with the repairmen coming in. Those were unpredictable and fun. The movie depicted the dangers of artificial intelligence so well while still making a robot the protagonist for whom we root for, which was quite daring.
Companion is such a competent genre mash-up that succeeds least in the horror department and best as a SF flick due to the robot’s functions being very well explored. It’s also very much a comedy – the dialogue is quite amusing at times and delightfully self-aware. Sophie Thatcher is a memorable final girl while Jack Quaid was quite an effective antagonist. Its conventional ending aside, most of the film moved confidently due to stellar pacing and a surprisingly clever script.
My Rating – 4