Late to the Party: Hell hath no fury like a robot scorned in Companion, now streaming on HBO Max
- Carla Davis
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
On the surface, Companion seemed like just another Stepford Wives knockoff. I mean, it was clear from the preview (and that simple, yet creepy poster) that the main female character of Iris was not actually a flesh and blood person.
But the buzz was mostly positive, so I watched it when came to HBO Max, and I don’t regret it. While it didn’t really offer anything new to the “robot doesn’t know they are a robot” trope, it was a slightly different take on it, and it offered a few unexpected twists. Plus, the humor was a nice touch.
We meet Iris (Sophie Thatcher) in the beginning of the film, and we see how she and her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) supposedly met cute in a supermarket. The two are embarking on a vacation trip with some friends, Kat, Eli and Patrick, and the group will be staying at a lake house owned by Kat’s smarmy boyfriend Sergey. It’s obvious from the start that Eli and especially Kat pretty much dismiss Iris.
When Iris has an uncomfortably close encounter with the yucky Sergey, everything starts to come to light, and she learns that she is not only basically a robot, but that she has been programmed via a “love link” to be devoted to Josh.
Thatcher is great as Iris, and her shock, disbelief, and anguish at finding out this fact really ring true. But what is even worse is that she learns the man she loves has used her to commit a serious crime – all for money.
Hell health no fury like an artificial intelligence/woman scorned, and Iris quickly becomes a deadly force to be reckoned with.
Horror/Comedies can be a mixed bag, but Companion balances it all out
Companion is a lot of fun, and lives up to the horror/comedy label very well. The violence is often brutal, but the laughs keep everything in balance, and the cast certainly helps with that. Harvey Guillen is delightful as Eli, Lukas Gage is great as the hot, dumb Patrick, and Megan Suri’s Kat is a believable mean girl. They all work together very well, and keep the story moving along.
Of course, none of this would work at all without Thatcher’s portrayal of the sweet, devoted Iris, and Quaid is the perfect co-star for her. From the beginning, we sense that something is off with Josh. In short, Companion is a really good and entertaining film, and it doesn’t really lose a lot in translation if you catch it streaming versus on the big screen.