Companion is the feature film debut of writer/director Drew Hancock. The movie stars Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid with support from Lukas Gage, Megan Suri and Harvey Guillén. A near future sci-fi/horror about AI sex companion “Iris” (Thatcher) that becomes self aware. This happens after her owner (Quaid) hacks her systems to encourage her to kill the rich, lecherous Russian Sergei (Rupert Friend). Iris wasn’t aware she was a “Companion”, but now must deal with the shocking reality of her situation. Not only this but also the fact she has been set up to take the fall for her owners crime. The reveal of Iris being an android is early in the movie, so I don’t consider this a spoiler. I think it was pretty obvious from the trailer too.
Over the last half century we’ve seen several films and TV shows about androids that pass for humans. The trend began in the 1970’s with movies like “Westworld” (1973) and “The Stepford Wives” (1975). The latter of which clearly had a big influence on this movie. Here though the “Perfect partners” are male and female and commonplace. While the Westworld androids achieved some kind sentience, it wasn’t treated sympathetically. For that we need to head to 1982 and “Blade Runner”. Rachael from that film has to deal with suddenly finding out her entire life is a lie. Combine that with the Stepford Wives and you basically have “Companion”. In the last few years there’s been flood of androids gone rogue movies including “M3gan”, “Tim” and “Subservience”. It’s into this overly saturated sub-genre we get “Companion”.
AI Horror
The movie is a reasonably entertaining ride. It is well shot and has a good pace. The acting is passable, but I can’t say I was convinced by Sophie Thatcher as a character whose entire world has turned out to be a fabrication. That may be more down to the script than the actress though, it just didn’t seem that interested in dealing with the trauma. Sadly, this film is riddled with plot holes and things that simply don’t make any sense. The movie relies on you not questioning any of it. For a start, the scheme required super rich Sergei to attempt to rape Iris (Which is a bit like stealing a strangers inflatable sex doll) and for Iris to accidentally kill him using a planted knife (Despite having the strength/speed of a regular human).
While Iris attempts to escape her situation, at no point does the film deal with the consequences of a rogue Android wandering around. Yet logically, her freedom would be short lived, making her struggle a little pointless. Indeed a big problem with this film is the lack of world building around the androids. The androids can be easily hacked and turned into killing machines and yet there is nothing in place to police this (No “Blade Runners”). As is all too often the case with this kind of sci-fi, the movie feels set in the present day and yet there are perfect AI replications of humans everywhere. Straight out the door this presents a nonsensical world and it’s done simply because androids are cheap and easy. In many ways it reminds me of the TV series “Humans”, which struggled with similar issues.
Conclusion
Ultimately, there is nothing original here. This is just a modern Stepford Wives riding the recent wave of android horror movies. The truth is, these are lazy movies. When the only sci-fi element are android and they are just awkwardly inserted into the modern day, it severely limits possibilities for both the story and subtext. Everything that can be achieved with that has already been done in Blade Runner, done far better and within an actual futuristic environment. To do anything more, you need world building and these android horrors never find the time or budget for that. However, the movie is fairly entertaining and well made. My final verdict is a narrow 5.5/10. Decent enough for its run time, but a movie that’ll be forgotten as soon as the next android horror comes out.