Companion (2025) [4K Ultra HD]

Director: Drew Hancock

Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage

Release Date: April 1, 2025

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

New Line Cinema—the studio that brought you “The Notebook”—and the unhinged creators of “Barbarian” cordially invite you to experience a new kind of love story…

‘Companion’ tells the twisted love story of an ordinary looking couple; Josh, a seemingly kind man and his girlfriend Iris, a beautiful young woman who is only concerned with making certain Josh is happy. As the two arrive at Josh’s friend’s secluded house away from society the biggest thing Iris is worried about is not acting foolish and hopefully winning over Josh’s friends. But as the vacation gets started, a clash between Iris and another ends in violence and bloodshed, kicking off a mess of troubles for these friends as things promptly begin to evolve from bad to worse.

Written and directed by Drew Hancock (TV’s The Mountain, Jimmy Kimmel Live!) who makes his feature length directorial debut with ‘Companion’ and does an outstanding job guiding along the tale with plenty of twists, turns and demented fun throughout. The film’s cast includes Sophie Thatcher (Heretic), Jack Quaid (Novocaine), Lukas Gage (Smile 2), Megan Suri (It Lives Inside), Harvey Guillén (TV’s What We Do in the Shadows) and Rupert Friend (Asteroid City) who each offer fully capable and fitting performances altogether in each of their respective roles.

‘Companion’ is a wild, brutal, clever and twisted love story like you’ve never seen before. It begins with your average adorable meeting of future lovers amid a grocery aisle, only to rejoin the now couple as they arrive at the secluded home of a friend for a relaxing getaway. But as the couple and the others settle in for the vacation things quickly take a dark turn and a brutal death is only the beginning of where things take a drastic detour.

Soon after things get violent (warning: mild, unavoidable spoilers ahead!) it’s revealed that Iris is in fact a complex robot companion, albeit unaware of her reality and a bloody killing in self-defense sends everything off the rails. What follows is a wildly entertaining, twisty and unexpected ride that seems to throw another twist or unexpected shift into the mix nearly every time the viewer begins to think they have a handle on what’s occurring and the end result is a truly marvelous romantic horror film that never quite goes where you expect it to. It serves up one dark, twisted turn after another while things continue to gradually evolve into utter chaos. ‘Companion’ is definitely one of the more pleasant surprises of the year so far and it benefits immensely from the careful guidance of filmmaker Drew Hancock and a great cast to help the craziness land without any hiccups, even allowing a mild plot hole or two to be largely disregarded thanks so many positive elements working in its favor.

Overall, ‘Companion’ is a delightfully twisted and violent ride that’s as dark and brutal as it is humorous and satirical in the darkest manner possible; with a stellar cast led by Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher to help it to fully evolve into something incredibly special. ‘Companion’ earns one of my highest recommendations and if you tend to enjoy a well-crafted horror film that isn’t afraid to go to some surprising and darkly humorous places while keeping you glued to the screen from start to finish then it’s not to be missed. This is one of the wilder, more twisty rides of a film I’ve experienced in recent memory and if you’re already even mildly intrigued then I can’t urge you strongly enough to give it a shot; it should be well worth the price of a rental and 90 minutes of your time at the absolute least and don’t be surprised if you end up wanting to own it as well.

VIDEO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Companion’ features a full 2160p Ultra High Definition presentation with HDR-10, presented in its original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks wonderful and offers up a clean, sharp and richly detailed presentation throughout that’s absent of any noticeable issues or glitches to be uncovered. Detail is great and character faces and clothing look stellar, along with scenery, interior settings and everything else on display at one point or another, while the HDR offers some improved coloring on surroundings, clothing, blood and more, all of which is perfectly complemented by deep, clean and problem free black levels. Overall, this is a very nice Ultra High Definition presentation that should have no trouble exciting fans as well as newcomers.

AUDIO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack. Please note that this review pertains solely to the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio presentation. This multichannel soundtrack also does its job well and provides a clean, crisp and hard hitting audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly utilizes all seven available channels in order to send music, action and nature effects, plus quite a bit more consistently whipping throughout the various speakers at every reasonable opportunity, while never resulting in any dialogue or other audio elements which might be occurring simultaneously with one another to become distorted or problematic. Overall, this is a great Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible) soundtrack that holds up splendidly without issue from start to finish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘Companion’ features a few brief extras in the way of some Behind the Scenes Featurettes which feature interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. The included Featurettes are ‘Companion: I Feel, Therefore I Am’ (running approximately 6 minutes in length), ‘Companion: Love, Eli’ (running approximately 4 minutes) and ‘AI Horror’ (approximately 5 minutes).

*Please note: The above images were provided by Warner Bros. and are not reflective of the actual 4K Ultra HD release or its quality. A standard Blu-ray copy of the film was not included in the release that could be used for screenshots therefore the above publicity stills were utilized. They are all the property of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Discovery and any other respective owners.

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Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Companion’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from New Line Cinema & Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment

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You can purchase ‘Companion’ on 4K UHD at Amazon HERE!

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