Compagnon

The tyro director steps up to the plate beautifully, delivering an ingenious, fast-paced horror-thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat while also featuring generous doses of mordant humor.

Featuring some of my favorite actors of the genre delivering utterly fantastic performances to the twists and turns, this is one I can't wait to revisit time and time again.

Hancock does a fabulous job of balancing his film's early romantic leanings and the horror (and possibly other genre) conceits that emerge as his story unfolds, and all the emotional truths that prop all those aspects up. It's one of the better screenplays of its ilk in years, setting up ideas and rules and playing with them in every imaginable way, and repeatedly surprising the audience while always playing fair.

As a twisty thriller, Companion more than delivers, keeping audiences guessing until the very end. There are clear ties to Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, with its unraveling of the perfect murder, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, with its reflection on humanity, science, and what happens when we seek to play god.

Companion is a film made with dark sensibilities, but it's built to be fun - delighting in toying with the audience's expectations and unfurling its ever more ominous plotting with the sun shining and a palette of pastels.

En plus de la qualité du récit, le film bénéficie d'une superbe performance de Sophie Thatcher, qui a démontré en seulement quelques années la force de son jeu dans des oeuvres qui flirtent avec l'horreur.

Carburant aux coups de théâtre ingénieux, le récit formule un message féministe, dans la veine de celui véhiculé par Olivia Wilde dans DON'T WORRY DARLING. Habile, ludique, visuellement attrayante, la réalisation génère un suspense efficace.