'Companion' is the queer horror film that perfectly meets this moment

It makes for a fascinating and unexpected spin on the AI anxiety that is steadily growing as the tech advances and looms ever larger in our day-to-day lives. It was this anxiety that writer-director Drew Hancock sought to turn on its head by recontextualizing AI not as the bad actor, but rather a product of the fallible humans putting it to use. “AI is a thing. It could be used for evil, it could be used for good, and it's all up to how we use it because it is a tool like social networking, like Instagram and Facebook,” Hancock tells PRIDE. “There are some characters that treat it well and there are some characters that treat it poorly. It's just about this future that's probably going to happen. What would it look like? What would it look like if your phone looked like a human being? That could change your relationship with all humans.“

In an earlier version of the film, Hancock considered making Iris the antagonist, but that would have robbed the film of the thematic depth that the final cut boasts — and of its many surprises. One of the ways Hancock sought to hide his hand in the opening beats of the film was through the inclusion of a queer couple. “In the first act of this movie, I wanted to lure people into a sense of something that is very familiar. You're presented with all of these genre tropes, and you make your judgments, and then something happens, and it twists. Suddenly, no, this movie is not what you expected. So for the beginning, it was very important for me to fill it with the gay couple that could just easily be there [and] just be like comic relief on the side. But no, actually, their love for each other is way stronger. It's like the only real love story within the movie,” Hancock explains.

This is helped along by how well-written Patrick and Eli are — and how sweet their love story is. They serve as a contrast to the other couples’ toxic dynamics, which for Guillèn felt really meaningful.

“I do feel like their love in the story is probably the most organic...it was nice to see this queer couple, and not the way that we see a lot of in queer media, being represented in queer communities that don't look like a cookie cutter,” Guillèn tells PRIDE. “It ends up being the most organic love out of all these stories, which was really lovely to play. At the time it was very meta for me, because I was very madly in love at the time when we shot this, and you were as well, I think,” he says to Gage, who nods in agreement. “So we were feeding off of what we were coming from, like weekend getaways from our significant others, and coming to set and working with each other, and bringing that love to the scene. And so I think it now lives on forever in this film. It's been captured, which we are so lucky that we filmed it then and not now,” he recalls as both he and Gage laugh in agreement.

Tech plays a powerful role in queer culture: the advent of dating apps has impacted everyone, but the rise of hookup apps have, arguably, done even more so for queer folks. They offer users the opportunity to connect with their community and find love — but the endless swiping can also have a dehumanizing effect. In many ways, the story Companion tells is the most extreme version of that arc, and Gage once again highlights the duality of technology and the way we use it.

“I think that we rely upon these apps. Think back to 10 years ago, just a decade ago, when we didn't have the opportunity to find people at the swipe of our fingertips. There is something that I think is beautiful about that, and people can find connection and love around the world, and especially in places where they don't have a lot of people in their community or queer people around them,” he tells PRIDE. “But then there's also that kind of instant gratification that sometimes I feel like can cut off a very organic way of meeting someone in a natural environment where it's just face to face, and that there's an immediate chemistry there. So there are pros and cons in both. Just like in this movie.”

Eli and Patrick and their organic love story represent the positive end of that contrast which, as Hancock explains, speaks to the way technology can shift the way we see each other as people. “The way I look at Josh and how he objectifies Iris, he also objectifies everyone. The line between robot and human is blurred, and so suddenly, when you don't know what you're looking at is literally an object, suddenly your friends could look like objects, too. So he objectifies everything. And that's just one version of how that could go,” he says.

This extends to Josh’s longtime friend, Kat, and also speaks to the misogyny at the heart of this kind of thinking, something that, again, feels particularly relevant for both women and queer folks today. “Kat's the only human woman in this entire movie, and yet she's treated in a lot of ways just like Iris,” Suri tells PRIDE. “She really sees the impact of just how toxic people can get when you're so disconnected from reality and humanity at its core. And I just think it's a real reflection of how certain people might value or might not value, for that matter, in any way, as women and what we bring to the world.”

Despite the dark subject matter and how it relates to our current cultural climate, the film still manages to be a cathartic watch. That’s in part because the film sees and reveals Josh and his “nice guy” type for the mundane cis white male monster he is. “I think a lesser movie makes Josh the protagonist, and Iris is going on a rampage, and Josh needs to save the day,” Quaid tells PRIDE. “I think you can learn a lot of lessons of what not to do [from] my character. He's one of the most insecure people I've ever played,” he says.

That's not to say Quaid didn’t see any humanity in Josh, but as an actor he had to find a way in. “I eventually found empathy towards him as I think he's a guy who’s not heard the words ‘I love you’ a lot in his life. I think that is what kind of motivates him to be in a relationship like this, where he needs another person to make himself feel special. You have to have empathy for your characters while you play them. But now that I'm not playing him anymore, screw Josh. He sucks and I don't like him,” laughs Quaid.

This film also gives you a hero to root for in the most unexpected place: a bloodied, confused, and ultimately resolute Iris. Call it programming, call it socializing, but many in the audience will immediately relate to a character who’s been told to sublimate their own needs and happiness for those of a partner, worthy or not.

Thatcher immediately connected with this element of the character. “This movie really is about toxic relationships and one-sided relationships, and [Iris] goes in just wanting to give her all and her everything to Josh, that she loses herself and she doesn’t know who she is. So when her world is completely shifted, she doesn’t know who she is and she doesn’t know where the hell to start,” she tells PRIDE. Unlike in the character of Josh, Thacher hopes audiences come away with ideas from Iris’s journey. “It’s really relevant right now in the time that we live in, where it feels like, as women and as anybody other than a straight white man...you feel like you don’t have power, but you can, and you do. It’s about finding yourself and grouping together.”

In a week where it feels like we are slipping and sliding into a near-future tech dystopia led by misogynists and homophobes, Companion lands a swift and clever punch right into the throat of those ideologies. If AI is inevitable and cultural norms remain on this path, then this movie is the future we want.