Sometimes they make it quite difficult indeed, but let’s try to find some joy in the struggle. Discussing Companion without resorting to spoilers is nearly impossible, so much so that the trailer could only be cagey about its premise, not outright elusive. In a world where movies weren’t inextricably linked to commerce, the folks at New Line Cinema would have been better off holding their cards close to the chest, but butts must find their way to seats. Those without a financial incentive would be cruel to blow the reveal, though their sin wouldn’t result in a ruined product. There’s plenty to consider and enjoy in writer/director Drew Hancock’s debut feature, but that doesn’t negate the fact that obliviousness is its ideal entry point. How does one talk about something without confronting it directly? Companion’s male lead has some ideas.

We first meet Josh (Jack Quaid) fumbling around a grocery store, bathed in the soft light of treasured memory. It’s the first time that Iris (Sophie Thatcher) laid eyes on the man who would become her paramore, though when we rejoin them some months later, things have cooled off considerably. Following an extended car ride with stilted conversation, the couple arrives at their weekend getaway, a massive cabin, stationed by a lake amidst an idyllic evergreen forest. Their company is less beatific, with Josh’s friend Kat (Megan Suri) regarding their union with open disdain, her thickly accented partner Sergey (Rupert Friend) following her lead. Lovers Patrick (Lukas Gage) and Eli (Harvey Guillén) are more inviting, at least until the opening act turn, which tilts the group’s entire dynamic into chaos.

That should put you right around the proper headspace to greet Companion, a movie that receives a boost from its twist without depending on it for the entirety of its narrative thrust. Among the many clever attributes of Hancock’s screenplay is an unwillingness to rest on the laurels of its high concept framing, interweaving a down-the-middle thriller with the more metaphorical elements. Setting yet another corker within the confines of a single lavish location has its drawbacks, given that Bodies Bodies Bodies, Sick, and It’s What’s Inside are such recent points of comparison, but Companion’s yarn is decidedly more dense. Rather than simply watching a collection of young, beautiful people unravel in the face of unforeseeable circumstances, the movie employs pulpy mechanics to keep your blood flowing. Ours stays in the veins, which is more than you can say for the characters on hand.

It’s perhaps disingenuous to praise a flick for its B-movie bonafides while lamenting its reliance on violence, but Hancock just doesn’t have the touch. The escalating melee is less involving than you’d hope, hamstrung by clumsy choreography and cinematographer Eli Born’s inability to capture it propulsively. It’s a small visual gripe in a film that otherwise unfolds quite handsomely, with rich colors and kinetic editing enlivening the experience, but the choppiness of the third act is unmissable. Everything up to that point has been too immaculate to ignore the slight downturn in quality, but our two leads have the goods to make it work anyway.

Of the many young, up-and-coming actresses using genre fare as a springboard into stardom, Thatcher is the one most clearly defined by a deep sense of interiority. Unlike Ella Purnell and Jenna Ortega, she creates a desperation to know what’s brewing just beneath the surface, an attribute that Companion weaponizes by shifting her character’s paradigm and prerogatives throughout its runtime. She shines in a film that’s asking an awful lot of its protagonist, and decidedly less of Quaid, though her costar makes for one hell of a toxic boyfriend. Defying his public reputation as the most affable, down-to-earth person in every room he enters, The Boys alum is making a career out of embodying patriarchal frailty that seems pitched as a direct opposition to Andrew Garfield’s unending treatise on sensitive masculinity. The actors’ striking resemblance cinches the point, and while Garfield’s watery eyes and ever-present self-effacement make for a more generous depiction of the modern man, Quaid’s feels more honest.

He’s prone to a bit of gaslighting, and while the mid-movie shake-up that we’re still dancing around would seem to point toward a different source of intrigue, Companion’s primary concern is the deprioritization of women’s voices. This comes with the attendant assumption that the lesser sex simply must be heard, despite the fact that Josh is one part chauvinist, and two parts imbecile. His amoral stupidity has a way of evading punishment, with Hancock deftly laying out just how much would have to go wrong for his milquetoast existence to be upended, all while observing just how easily Iris’ life and reputation can be torn asunder. It’s a bit heavy handed by the time some incel rhetoric is applied to the proceedings, but the movie deserves credit for refusing to mince words. Where Zach Cregger’s Barbarian, the film that Companion’s marketing team would have you believe is a sort of spiritual antecedent, circumvented its own social critics to the point of being vaguely problematic, Hancock goes for the throat.

Somehow, the assault never comes at the expense of entertainment, as Companion lands its ideological plane by riding the high winds of adrenaline and humor. It takes some leg work to get there, but Hancock and his team make it look effortless, with even the expository information downloads parcelled out with cleverness and precision. It makes for an excellent rejoinder to Thatcher’s mystery box television series Yellowjackets, as well the plethora of adjacent streaming offerings. Companion would have made for a hell of a miniseries, exploring its myriad ideas and expanding their parameters, but the brevity of Hancock’s film makes it ripe for revisitation. A shot in the arm rather than an exploratory procedure, the impression it makes has a staying power that’s unique to the medium. Elongation can be tiresome, just like avoiding spoilers. In a better world, we wouldn’t need to know the whole premise before buying a ticket. Let’s start building that world right now.