Soulm8te was recorded on VOD on August 1, 2026.
Soulm8te, once pushed aside, is resurrected on VOD
The story of Soulm8te is weird. It was supposed to hit theaters in January, but we can assume that the abject box office failure of the second M3GAN Last year’s film made Universal a little skeptical about its financial prospects. The film was therefore unceremoniously removed from the program and look at as if it was going to be put aside indefinitely a’la Coyote vs. Acme.
Well, the plan has apparently changed.
Of course, Soulm8te doesn’t get a full-fledged theatrical run like the one mentioned above Coyote vs. Acme. But it was saved from the ash heap of “lost media” when Universal opted to release the film directly to VOD earlier this month. I don’t think there’s really any surprise about Why the studio did an about-face on the film.
After all, in the meantime, a little film called Obsession arrived.
Certainly, comparing Soulm8te has Obsession is not exactly an individual scenario. Yet the films are nevertheless similar enough thematically that one can’t help but see the proof in the pudding. If A Murderous girlfriend movie makes a studio a lot of money, you KNOW another studio is going to at least test the waters on another murderous girlfriend movie. And since Soulm8te was already in the box, why not take the path of least resistance here?
There is nothing revolutionary in Soulm8teeven taking into account the motif of “love being replaced by the robot” – which we have already seen in Companion And Enslavement. It’s a very detailed film that takes few risks with the concept, to the point where it almost feels like a slightly recycled version of the 2019 film. Child’s play remake (although with some obvious changes when it comes to sex, violence, and sexualized violence.) There’s even a scene where the titular android Soulm8te is corrupt by an influx of YouTube and Instagram videos, the same way Chucky became “bad” in the 19 remake. I’m not saying it’s a completely reused script, but again, I’m not saying that isn’t iteither.
I have the impression that there were uncertain the editing continues afterwards with this film. Technically, it takes place in the same cinematic universe as the M3GAN films, but there are no references to the previous two films (unless you want to count some names of non-existent tech companies, and like damn, I remember what those were called.) It almost seems as if they wiped everything and everything explicit M3GAN screams and I tried to keep Soulm8te its own distinct thing. Which makes sense, considering this movie certainly strives for that tough R rating. It takes time to Soulm8te to hit its stride, but when it gets bloody, it gets VERY bloody. But then again, if you’re looking for taste and tact in a horror movie about killer sex robots, you’ve already taken a few wrong turns before you even get into a horror movie. hit play on your remote.
The storyline is pretty basic. David Rysdahl plays a grieving engineer (oddly enough, also named David) who can’t get over the memory of his deceased wife. His robotics company is bought by the same no more harm tech company and they push him hard to tinker with their proprietary Soulm8te technology and before long he is having an emotional affair with a ChatGPT algorithm. If you saw Heryou’ve already seen this part of the film.
You can see where this is going. Dave’s new boss tells him about their latest product – an incredibly lifelike android that looks, sounds, smells, tastes, feels and humps like a flesh-and-blood woman – which David names Sara. I think this is meant to be a joke, given that this is literally a movie about rogue AI and the robot shares its name with the protagonist of the first two Terminator movies. Or maybe it’s a coincidence, who knows.
Sara is played by Lily Sullivan. To her credit, she’s pretty good at playing a soulless sex android who can’t tell real life from TikTok Reels. She speaks in a creepy monotone, the voice of customer service throughout the movie and she always she looks like she’s a Stepford wife on the verge of serious dysfunction. Anyway, David doesn’t like his personality so he non-consensually tinker with her microchips and turn her into a nymphomaniac fetish doll and… well, we’ve all seen it Obsession and know where it leads.
Soulm8teas uninspired as it is, nevertheless manages to introduce some halfway intellectual questions about free will and sexual autonomy. It’s not as sharp and meaningful like what we came out of Obsession – you really can’t tell This the film is about sexual coercion and abusive relationships, at least to the same extent – but it always addresses some similar issues and current topics. It’s not so much a film about intrusive technology as that. intrusive men who feel they are obligated to female bodies, even when the bodies are made on an assembly line. It’s an interesting angle in the midst of the so-called “male loneliness epidemic,” but the film never really goes all the way… which it probably does. central problem of the whole film.
Soulm8te is a modern and unusual horror film in the sense that it suffers from opposite problem of most contemporary genre films. It’s a film that actually ends very strongly, but absolutely stalls during the first hour of its approximately 90-minute runtime. It’s a film that takes forever to get interesting and by the time that happens…it’s pretty much over. The best scene in the film is when Sara “seduces” a technician and literally atomize him with her… well, use your imagination. There’s a follow-up scene involving an unsavory character and a hacked Waymo that’s almost as great and it leaves you thinking “why weren’t these things included?” earlier in the movie instead of all that boring crap? I can’t explain it, but it probably explains Why this thing was pulled from a theatrical release…that’s not always the case badbut it still feels like a complete mess, even at its highest peaks.
I don’t think Soulm8te will impress too many viewers, but it might entertain them with its weirder aspects. We’ve seen psycho sex doll slashers before, but we don’t have I’ve seen them do deep fake revenge and do jaw-dropping karaoke renditions of “Lovefool” by The Cardigans Before.
Too bad it’s not the entire movie, though.
TRY IT IF YOU LIKE: Relationship drama, not-so-subtle anti-AI messages, blondes who wear lipstick too dark for their skin tone
DIRECTOR: Kate Dolan
WRITER(S): Kate Dolan, Rafael Jordan, James Wan, Ingrid Bisu
WITH : Lily Sullivan, David Rysdahl, Claudia Doumit, Arty Froushan
STUDIO: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse Productions
DISTRIBUTER: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
RUNNING DURATION: 99 minutes
LANGUAGE: English
RELEASE DATE: August 1, 2026 (VOD)
