Sophie Thatcher’s sci-fi film Companion drops a shocking spoiler in the trailer

Details about Companionthe horror-thriller debut produced by Barbarian director Zach Cregger, have been thin since Warner Bros. released the movie mysterious first teaser back in October. With less than a month until its theatrical premiere on January 31, the studio decided to finally pull back the curtain on the first full trailer. And as for the premise, I certainly did that not see that coming. (Spoilers ahead for the plot points revealed in the trailer, which are likely intended as surprise twists in the film itself.)

Sophie Thatcher (Heretic) stars as Iris, a young woman who is swept off her feet by Josh (Jack Quaid), a charming young billionaire she meets while grocery shopping. After being invited on a weekend trip to her new boyfriend’s lake estate, Iris discovers a terrible secret: she is in fact a sex robot programmed to obey her master’s whims, and their entire courtship is just one of have been sick fantasies. The solution is of course simple and known from Alex Garland’s Ex Machina: Iris must kill anyone who stands in her way of escape.

That certainly explains the otherwise inexplicable strangeness of the teaser, in which Iris is handcuffed to a chair at a dining table and she watches, teary-eyed but surprisingly calm, as her arm catches fire. While this full trailer seems to give away the film’s big twist, I’m willing to bet that first-time feature writer-director Drew Hancock and Cregger have something else in store, given the bold tone of the footage we’ve seen so far. .