Companion
NZ release: 30 January 2025
Violence, domestic violence, cruelty and sexual references Rated on: 03 December 2024
What’s it about?
Companion is a thriller that follows a young couple, Josh and Iris, as they join a group of Josh’s friends for a weekend getaway at a lake house. The trip takes a sinister turn when boundaries are violated, triggering a series of unexpected and escalating events.
The facts
- Directed by Drew Hancock
- English language
- Runtime: 97 minutes
- Starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid
Why did it get this rating?
This film was classified by Te Mana Whakaatu, Classification Office. You can find out more about classification process and ratings here.
Violence
In self-defence a female character strikes a man over the head with a bottle. When the man attacks her she stabs him with a pocketknife in the neck. There’s excessive blood spurts from his artery. She returns to the house soaked in blood.
A character murders a policeman by punching him in the face excessively. We don’t see the full extent of the deadly injury until a later scene where we see the dead man’s face is bloody pulp.
Guns, knives and a motorised corkscrew are used as weapons in the film, with resulting bloody wounds causing death.
Domestic violence
A male character throws a female character around the room in a disturbing scene that would be upsetting for anyone impacted by domestic violence. As he uses physical violence against her, including slamming her head into the floor, he tells her ‘I am everything to you’, and forces her to say in return ‘you are everything to me’. He points a gun at her head and then at her abdomen.
Josh manipulates and forces Iris to self-harm. In a climactic scene he forces her to burn herself by holding her hand over a candle. In the same scene he forces her to hold a gun against her head and shoot herself.
Cruelty
The film explores themes of manipulation and coercion. We see Josh systematically gaslight and manipulate Iris, and it is revealed that he set her up to commit murder on his behalf.
A character runs for his life through the forest and lands in a pit of dead bodies in various stages of decay.
Sexual references
There are a few sexual scenes and references. A scene opens with a closeup of Josh’s face as he orgasms with a loud groan. We see him quickly roll off Iris and to his side of the bed. He dismissively tells Iris to go to sleep after she expresses her love to him.
In another scene the camera lingers on a closed door and we can tell from the sounds coming from the room that people are having sex, but nothing is shown.
Offensive language
There is moderate language throughout the film, used in reference to sex (“f*cks”, “f*ck me”), or as an exclamation (“Jesus Christ f*ck!”).
What the Youth Advisory Panel thought
A member of the YAP attended the classification screening. They found the cruelty, emotional manipulation and gaslighting throughout the film disturbing. The final sequence between Josh and Iris as a clear depiction of intimate partner violence was particularly intense. They enjoyed the moral and ethical questions posed by the complex narrative arch and suggested that younger teens may struggle to grasp the complex cruelty themes in the film.
When content stays with you:
We all have our boundaries, and it’s completely okay if something you’ve watched is weighing on your mind. If certain content lingers with you, consider having a chat with friends or whānau to debrief about what you’ve just seen. But if you’re still feeling affected, please reach out to any of the following helplines for support.
Further information
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