A young couple’s romantic weekend retreat turns into a nightmare in Companion, opening in Prague and cinemas worldwide this weekend. Modeled at first as a kind of cheesy Valentine’s Day romance (“from the producers of The Notebook,” the trailer proudly proclaims), most viewers will already be in on the central twist in advance—but those going into this one completely blind get a special treat.
The promotional materials for Companion—heck, even its poster—unforgivably give away the film’s first big twist, which is revealed at around the 25 minute mark. But even if you’re not in the know, the coy wink-wink presentation hints at things to come in somewhat tedious fashion; we all know that something is up from the opening monologue.
Thankfully, there’s a lot more to Companion than that initial twist, and writer-director Drew Hancock‘s screenplay does an exceptional job of doling out the revelations in a way that sets up where his story is going. The twists here don’t only motivate us to re-interpret what we have seen, but also invent new directions for the narrative to progress.
Companion stars Sophie Thatcher as Iris, who shares one of those impossible meet-cutes with future beau Josh (Jack Quaid) that only seem to happen in the movies: a timid eye glance in the fruit section of a supermarket that leads to Josh stumbling in more ways than one as a crateful of oranges comes crashing down to the floor.
The couple are soon madly in love, and we pick up with them some time later as they’re traveling to meet Josh’s friends at a country estate. Iris is worried about their reaction to her—feelings that are immediately validated when Kat (Megan Suri) greets her with passive-aggressive attitude. Kat’s creepy Russian boyfriend Sergei (Rupert Friend) adds to the tense atmosphere, though Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage) seem largely congenial.
Isolated cabin in the woods? Hint of tension between the characters? Wealthy Russian with a questionable background? There are many directions that Companion could take from here, but Hancock’s script takes a page from producer Zach Cregger’s Barbarian after a particularly unpleasant encounter between Iris and Sergei, and makes a sharp left turn with its first reveal.
And while many viewers will be aware of exactly what Companion is hiding under the covers, they won’t know where the narrative goes from there. Instead of simply revealing the twist and watching how things play out, the narrative dives into sci-fi, horror, crime, and comedy tropes, dishing out new information and toying with our allegiances along the way.
Companion serves up a delicious metaphor for the roles we play in relationships: the role we think we play, and the role expected of us by our partners. Thatcher is captivating as Iris, who experiences the film’s revelations alongside the audience: as she learns new details about her relationship with Josh that rock her world, she must still deal with the lingering feelings for a person that she didn’t really know.
There’s a lot more going on in Companion, and while the film’s sci-fi elements don’t always feel as authentic as something like Ex Machina or even M3GAN, they add a completely unique layer to what might have otherwise been a derivative horror film. This one is a real crowd-pleaser that deserves to be seen with as little advance knowledge as possible, and might be 2025’s first big hit at the box office.
