Image: “Companion” Movie Poster via IMDb
Spoilers for “Companion” (2025)
Walking into the theater, I was going in pretty much blind to what would happen. I knew that ”Companion” (2025) was about a human-like robot that goes crazy, but only from others explaining it to me. I only watched a few clips from trailers but wanted to be surprised and WOW.
”Companion” exceeded my expectations as a sci-fi film. Scene after scene this film had me shocked. Sophie Thatcher has been killing it in the horror genre with films like “Heretic” (2024), “MaXXXine” (2024) and the television show, “Yellowjackets” (2021). Jack Quaid is no stranger to playing men who manipulate their girlfriends to kill for them. He played Richie in “Scream” (2022), whose character bonded with the obsession of ghostface with his girlfriend Amber. I was looking forward to seeing both of these actors in a film together after being a fan of other movies they’ve been in separately. Along with some other actors I was excited to see in the film, Lukas Gage and Megan Suri, who have taken on a few roles in horror in 2024.
“Companion” follows the ”love story” of Iris and Josh, except Iris is a robot companion that Josh ordered from Empathix to fill the void in his heart. The two conveniently meet in the produce aisle after making eye contact and knocking over a shelf of oranges. From then on, it was history. The couple heads to a lake house for the weekend with two other couples. Unaware of why their friends are hesitant around Iris, she is going into this weekend nervous about what’s going to be said. All goes south after Iris kills someone and the others panic to get her “under control.”
Throughout the first 30 minutes of this movie, I kept forgetting that Iris was a robot. Of course, there were clues like her name literally being Siri backward or the way that Josh would bluntly tell her to ‘go to sleep’ like she was a computer. But as Josh was trying to convince her that she was real, I was being convinced too. I mean, Josh wasn’t being very subtle, his nickname for her was literally “Beep Boop.”
I really enjoyed the way they filmed this movie. The first part of it was filmed very light and sweet. It gave the impression that it was just a movie about a few friends on a weekend trip but surprise, everyone dies. It makes me think about how far we are from the reality of companion robots compared to other movies like “Her” (2013).
Like other revenge films in the horror genre, this focuses on a girl sticking up to her emotionally insecure, manipulative boyfriend. This subgenre is becoming a favorite for me. Not only is Iris a robot that conveniently waits at Josh’s call. He’s convinced her that they had a love at first sight, with memories and real feelings. But Josh only takes advantage of her and uses her when he feels like it. He can literally adjust everything about her down to her intelligence level.
I audibly gasped after they revealed Patrick was also an emotional support robot. Listening to his love-at-first-sight story with Eli, I should’ve known it was too good to be true. It just makes you wonder how many people would fall in love with a customizable robot like Josh and Eli.
Even though Thatcher’s character is a robot, the trope of a girlfriend willing to do anything for her boyfriend is no new plot. Josh treats her like trash and talks about her like she isn’t even in the room. He couldn’t even follow through with the murder himself. A lot of movies have been doing this in the final act of the film. The innocent, nice guy turns and becomes the silent villain. Quaid actually did a really good job on his final scenes in the movie, his monologue felt so eerie and disturbingly accurate to what so many victims of domestic abuse have heard from their partners. The scariest part of this movie is the abuse that Iris receives from Josh. Luckily, Iris gets her happy ending. Realizing she is more than just his robot. “The girlfriend is over her ‘sweet’ boyfriend and takes revenge.” These movies are flooding Hollywood and I am here for it.
Lauren Flynn-Miller is a fourth-year Interdisciplinary Studies with minors in Journalism and Media & Culture. LF954013@wcupa.edu
I am not one to look any kind of movies but this one the way you described it sounds excellent! Thank you.