The First True Horror Classic Of 2025 Is Now Streaming On Max
It’s a great time to be a horror fan. The genre has produced hit after hit in the last few years — and 2025 is shaping up to be another great year.
The Monkey and Sinners have already gotten tongues wagging, while cinephiles are waiting with bated breath for 28 Years Later and M3GAN 2.0, among other benchmark fright-fests. Meanwhile, anyone who didn’t have $20 to drop on a movie ticket in January has another reason to celebrate: 2025’s first horror hit and probably classic is now available on Max. Companion, which was released in January to critical acclaim and a robust audience response, is streaming in living rooms worldwide. If you haven’t caught the film, then here are some spoiler-free reasons for why you should press that play button.
The twists are twisting
If you’ve seen any promotional material for this movie, then you already know the first “twist,” which is actually the concept of the movie: Josh’s girlfriend Iris is actually an AI “companion” laden with false memories. But then the twists keep coming! This movie pulls out the rug from under you with glee and frequency. It’s almost like you’ve started the movie standing on five rugs. However, this isn’t the kind of movie that winks at you, acknowledging its cleverness. It bolsters its twists with heart-pounding action and tension. It’s classic pulpy entertainment.
Sophie Thatcher’s microexpressions
Sophie Thatcher was a virtual unknown until she appeared as Nat on Yellowjackets, where she now serves rizzalicious badassery on a regular basis. Afterwards, she seemed poised to become a scream queen with her role in The Boogeyman (or shall we say The Boogeymeh). But then she made her scream queen status official by delivering a sharp and quivering turn as Sister Barnes in Heretic in 2024. Companion essentially makes good on that promise by casting Thatcher as Iris, giving her the big starring role she deserves. Her countless microexpressions as she shifts between programmed servitude, budding self-awareness, and bitter rage are the stuff Oscars are made of.
The Black Mirrorishness
Companion is too heavy on horror-thriller beats and early-movie twists to be a Black Mirror episode, but it definitely shares some DNA with the series. By elevating a sci-fi concept — AI sexbots — that is already a reality, Companion shows our possible collective future. Sexbots are thankfully still nowhere near as organic or intelligent as Thatcher’s Iris, but Companion takes the concept of Iris to its logical conclusion, all while exposing the darker side of human nature. However, it’s not as depressing or cynical as a typical Black Mirror episode, which means you can enjoy it without feeling like you’re a psychopath.
The training wheels are off
As written by former TV writer Drew Hancock, Companion is at times very funny, but it’s also far from family-friendly. Like any good sci-fi horror-thriller, the movie serves its one-liners with plenty of gore. No one is safe in Companion and at some point you’ll have no idea who to root for. That makes it easier once the blood starts flying. However, if you have any fond attachments to Lukas Gage (The White Lotus), Jack Quaid (Scream, The Boys), or Rupert Friend (Mr. Wickham in Pride & Prejudice), then you’ll feel a little more anxiety about their characters’ possible fates.
Free relationship advice
Companion employs a retro-chic aesthetic with vibrant colors to mirror the artifice of its AI protagonist. However, it also manages to convey commentary about real, non-artificial relationships. Though Jack Quaid’s character Josh is dating a robot, he still has an emotional attachment to her similar to what he’d feel for an organic woman. (“Real woman” feels rude for some reason … do I care about AI’s feelings now? Anyway …) This allows for Companion to deconstruct the idea of the modern “nice guy” and what he really represents — if he still wants a woman he can control, is he really that nice? Ultimately, it feels revelatory that Companion dwells on this theme rather than revisiting the ethical quandary of AI sentience … for the 1000th time. In other words, Companion will leave you with no desire to buy a sexbot and with every reason to care about your real, human relationships. For that, it gets two organic thumbs up!
