It’s rare these days that I sit down to a movie without having absorbed all its marketing, but I managed to dodge a lot of Companion‘s promo. I knew its vibe, but not its premise, which I was quite proud of. This had the aura of a capital-P Premise movie, which treats revealing what it’s actually about as a reason for being, and the dreaded spoiler is its mortal enemy. Think of last year’s Abigail, a film so dependent on its “twist” that all anyone could talk about was what a shame it was the trailers gave it away.

I have good news: Companion is spoiler-proof. It masquerades as a Premise movie for a few minutes, almost mockingly, being so transparent with its hints at the truth that they start to look like jokes. Then, Knives Out-style, it quickly gives the game away. We the audience get to run alongside the film, instead of being asked to chase after it. If you’d rather not know, you can stop reading now and try to bury your head in the sand until it releases. Godspeed. But as someone whose guess turned out to be right, I think knowing makes it better.

Companion Avoids The Trap Of Being Too Clever For Its Own Good

It’s A Thriller, But You’ll Laugh More Than You’ll Scream

So, here goes: Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is deeply in love with Josh (Jack Quaid). The film opens on their grocery store meetcute, which Iris describes in voiceover as one of two life-defining moments — the other being when she killed him. We flash ahead to when a still-alive Josh is taking Iris to a secluded lakehouse for a getaway with his friends. Kat (Megan Suri) is sleeping with the property’s older, shady Russian owner, Sergey (Rupert Friend), and she’s invited Josh and Eli (Harvey Guillén), who brings his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage), for a taste of luxury.

What Iris doesn’t know, but what everyone else seems to, is that she isn’t human. She’s a robot companion, essentially offering an AI-powered girlfriend experience; all the pleasures of a loving partner with none of the pesky difficulties that come with free will. She’s harmless, docile, completely customizable, and cannot lie. So, when she suddenly commits an act of violence that, unbeknownst to her, should be impossible, all hell soon breaks loose.

I won’t dig any deeper into the story than that, though I really believe it wouldn’t matter if I did. Companion is a how movie, not a what movie. Writer-director Drew Hancock doesn’t really try to hide things from the audience (nor, amusingly, from the characters) for very long. He telegraphs where we’re headed to shift focus to how the film will address it, or how the characters will respond. Companion wants to surprise you, but has no real interest in trying to outsmart you.

Sounds refreshing, doesn’t it? It certainly felt that way to me. The movie has a familiarity to it, but I’ve racked my brain for a clean point of comparison and have struggled to find one. It’s more like a distillation of different things floating in the zeitgeist, vaguely reminiscent of your Ready or Nots, your The Menus, your Promising Young Womans, your M3GANs, and, yes, your Barbarians, but a poor likeness of any of them when put side-by-side. The trailers suggest horror, but Companion plays like a sci-fi-tinged, comedic thriller. It’s designed to entertain, and entertain it does.

Sophie Thatcher & Jack Quaid’s Performances Set The Tone

And Companion Works Best When They Lean Comedic

The performances are essential to that goal and I enjoyed everyone on screen. Thatcher is asked to do a great deal, but her most praiseworthy accomplishment is Iris’ depth of feeling. She’s not an aloof, calculating, manipulative machine, she’s a lovebot and comes by her emotions honestly. Through all the ensuing madness, her love for Josh is always manifest and she always feels “real” to us because of it.

Quaid, meanwhile, is Companion‘s tone-setter. The smartest and sharpest element of Promising Young Woman, for my money, was the way it weaponized casting to take on the so-called Nice Guy, and Quaid would’ve been right at home in that lineup. Josh is inherently relatable, and quite funny, but he’s also a loser, and it’s clear right away this mess he’s found himself in is completely beyond him. Hancock hangs the movie on this performance. When he leans comedy, the tone is light; when he leans serious, the whole film darkens.

I found Companion more comfortable on the lighter side of that spectrum. Obviously, the rogue Sєx robot movie has themes, but Hancock is largely content to let these simmer on the backburner, there to add flavor rather than be the star of the meal. However you feel about them, it’s hard to deny that socially conscious, metaphor-driven horror thrillers have been in vogue for a while now. That Companion plays like it’s set at 40% intelligence feels like a conscious choice.

Personally, I can’t deny that I’m a sucker for a good trauma monster. But if we get a few more movies like this, that can be both thoughtful and fun without relying on self-consciousness, you won’t find me complaining.