In Companion, a dude has the perfect girlfriend—aside from her slightly uneven teeth—who loves him, cares after him, and is unabashedly sold on him. Too bad he has other plans. A thriller that goes in unexpected directions before becoming semi-predictable, Companion is high-grade entertainment through and through.
Sophie Thatcher plays Iris, a unique “Final Girl” who finds herself on the wrong end of a nefarious plot that quickly spirals out of control for its perpetrators. If you’re a sucker for crime thrillers gone wrong, Companion is a fun, twisty, gory hell of a ride. It helps that Thatcher (“Yellowjackets”) brings her A-game, delivering a deliciously killer performance. The way she acts with her face in even the [seemingly] simplest of scenes says it all.
Jack Quaid and the rest of the cast are great too; it’s clear they know the film’s premise rocks and are all in to bring it to life.
Everything about this movie—which clocks in at a lean 95 minutos—is a blast, from the characters to the writing to the bursts of splattery deaths.
Writer/director Drew Hancock takes his foot off the pedal in the home stretch though—not losing entertainment value, really, but one more unconventional surprise would have taken this picture to the next level. After being relatively unpredictable for most of its runtime (unfortunately, an article headline spoiled the underlying premise for me well before I saw this movie), the third act doesn’t keep you guessing at the same heightened level. But that’s neither here nor there—Companion is a ton of fun from start to finish. Plug yourself in.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.
