It’s difficult to review a movie like Companion.
So much of this movie’s enjoyment hinges on knowing as little as possible going in. During the first twenty minutes, I found myself wishing I hadn’t seen the trailers and promotional images as it seems that was the creator’s intention. As such, I’m going to do my best to review the movie, giving away as little as possible. If you’d like full spoilers, I’ll definitely be joining the discussion over at our Spoiler Thread.
Kind of a Mess
Companion follows Iris (Sophie Thatcher) as she visits a remote cabin with her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid). They plan to meet up there with Josh’s friends Kat (Megan Suri), Eli (Harvey Guillén), and his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage). And … that’s it. That’s pretty much all I can say without getting into spoiler territory.
I will say this movie is not a horror as much as a gory thriller. While it is definitely bonkers in its concept, I think it’s tame compared to Barbarian. There are only a couple of scenes where the movie really goes there in terms of the horror of the premise, and they’re a joy to witness. More often than not though, the movie fails to deliver on the potential of its set-up. Speaking of which …
Companion Is Nothing Like Barbarian
Barbarian is a buck-wild horror film following Bill Skarsgård and Georgina Campbell as they decide to temporarily cohabitate in a double-booked AirBnB. While the movie is twisty and explores ideas you wouldn’t expect based on the presented premise, the themes are very clear: sexual violence and misogyny in society and culture.
While Barbarian’s creator Zack Cregger still serves as a producer for Companion, the writer and director is Drew Hancock. His best-known works include Fred: The Show, Blue Mountain State, and Fred 3: Camp Fred. While I don’t think someone’s film resume alone should be a reason to judge their ability as a writer, this isn’t a great list. And I liked Blue Mountain State.
The writing in this movie is pretty on the nose. While Barbarian did this to some degree, it kept an undercurrent of humor and campiness that made things more tolerable. While serious topics are being discussed (and we’ll get there), the actual execution of it is preachy to the point of being pretentious. I found myself rolling my eyes during the final scene’s confrontation, even though the tone is intended to be very somber and serious. The final kill is excellent though, no notes on that.
What’s the Point?
I found myself thinking long after the credits rolled about what this film’s theme was supposed to be. It touches on ideas about humanity in the context of romantic relationships, the idealization of sexual partners, domestic and sexual violence, and more. At the end though, all of these boil down to half-baked ideas and none are carried through the movie’s run-time.
My partner and I debated what this movie was about for hours after we watched it, and each time we thought we figured it out, we came to a “but it couldn’t be that, because this scene completely rejects that set-up.” What the movie amounts to thematically is a series of vignettes with serious social topics discussed that when put together don’t make a lot of sense as a whole. At best, it boils down to the idea that men take women for granted, but that’s frankly surface-level and an idea that’s been discussed in much more interesting and entertaining ways.
Wrapping Up
I want to say that it’s a fun little romp if you turn your brain off, but I think you can’t do that with this premise. What remains is a messy movie carried completely by Sophie Thatcher’s great performance. Jack Quaid is just doing Hughie from The Boys, so if you liked him in that, you’ll probably like him here. I was pleasantly surprised to see Megan Suri who I really enjoyed in It Lives Inside, but she didn’t have much to do. The same goes for Harvey Guillén and Lukas Gage, both who I enjoy in other things but are just okay here.
Frankly, there are better movies that explore these themes and ideas. I went into this movie with high hopes and left disappointed. Hopefully with Cregger back in the writer/director role, we’ll see better stuff from him in the future, because this wasn’t it.
