Despite a few popular entries over the years, technology horror was once a painful gimmick featuring advanced, though vaguely-explained technology going awry or turning maniacally sentient at the cost of human life. Clunky robots on a killing spree or boxy, wired computers going rogue with classified information, the subgenre runs the gamut of quality and accessibility. With our own advances in special effects and computer-generating departments, filmmakers have certainly benefitted. Series like “Black Mirror” have conditioned viewers to expect understated, though hyper-realistic situations in which various forms of tech could wreak havoc on alt- or future Earth. “M3GAN”, which released two years ago this month to unequivocal critical and commercial success, proved that horror-comedy with a twist of science fiction could be done with the right script, the right direction, and, most importantly, the right attention to detail.
“M3GAN” walked so that “Companion” could run>. The new film, which uses its marketing campaign to push a pre-Valentine’s Day agenda of love with a side of blood, fuses horror, technology and comedy to make the most quantifiably fun 97 minutes you’ll find currently offered in theaters. Written and directed by Drew Hancock, the film is not taking a page from its predecessor’s handbook by attempting to generate a social media frenzy. It is, however, smartly playing it coy. Avoiding the twist may be difficult once the film is out in the world, but doing so would ensure a much more exhilarating viewing experience. Like the psychopath hiding in the closet with a meat cleaver, the twist has the potential to bludgeon you with shock, awe and tantalizing intrigue.
That said, continue with this review at your own caution as spoilers lie ahead.
“Companion” stars a smattering of young actors who have done the horror film romp in recent years. Sophie Thatcher (opposite Hugh Grant in “Heretic”) stars as Iris, a sweet, reserved and self-conscious young woman who also happens to be an android life escort, purchased by a human in need of, well, companionship in every sense of the word. The opening moments of the film immediately set the tone: Iris experiences a meet-cute with Josh, played by the charming Jack Quaid (Ghostface in the 2022 “Scream” reboot). They stumble into one another’s eyeline in the fresh food section of a nondescript grocery store where the tumbling of produce has them laughing at their first shared experience. We learn later this was all a memory hardwired into Iris’ database to give her context for their relationship, a touch that plays out a few times to great effect.
Now officially “together,” Iris joins Josh for a weekend away with his good friends: Iris’ greatest detractor Kat, played by Megan Suri (the lead in “It Lives Inside”), Eli, played by Harvey Guillén (from the quirky horror-comedy “Werewolves Within” and the “What We Do in the Shadows” television series) and Eli’s boyfriend Patrick, played by Lukas Gage (a memorable character in last fall’s “Smile 2”). The remote mansion belongs to Kat’s sugar daddy Sergey, played by Rupert Friend. While Friend doesn’t have an explicit horror film on his resume, it’s hard to forget his smarmy portrayal of one of the greatest villains to disrupt literature, the vile Mr. Wickham (IYKYK).
All this to say, this isn’t their first tango with the genre, and their expertise shines through as the action revs into overdrive. A walking, talking robot, Iris commits murder, an act that is against her programming. As the humans around her scramble to contain the mess and “turn her off,” the truth of the situation is not as straightforward as it first appears. There are undeniable references in this film to others in the genre. At that first rendezvous in the produce department, the set design and general location recalls the “meat”-cute in Hulu’s cannibal romance-horror film “Fresh,” which also released just prior to Valentine’s Day three Januarys ago. By the end of the film, Patrick dons a police uniform, and his steely, mechanical gaze is a subtle nod to T-1000 in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”. Iris’ character, her mod aesthetic, her eagerness to please, and the very obvious robotic nature of her attentiveness to Josh all take significant inspiration from “The Stepford Wives.”
There is also an irreverence that “Companion” nails, even while administering admiration to those that came before. Beyond that, the relationships between the characters feel far too well-developed for its meager 97-minute runtime. Thatcher and Quaid shine, though there isn’t a weak performance amongst the lot. While there is undoubtedly a cautionary tale baked in about the dangers of technology, it’s hard to look past the stupidity of human greed and hubris. Produced by the team that made “Barbarian,” “Companion” may not be quite as perverted and grotesque as the creature in the basement, but it is a mysterious, sexy and totally deranged creation that warrants some love this holiday.
“Companion” is in theaters now.
