Soulm8te is a 2026 sci-fi/horror film released from Blumhouse. It is directed by Kate Dolan and stars David Rysdahl, Lily Sullivan, Claudia Doumit, and Arty Froushan. This is a sort of strange film because it was originally meant to be a theatrical release, I’m sure. I mean it had to be. It is set within the M3GAN universe and it’s Blumhouse. The movie itself didn’t look or feel cheap or anything like that and the story felt well thought out and directed I thought. Strangely enough though, this movie just very quietly dropped straight to VOD released on Prime, YouTube, Apple, and Fandango at the beginning of the month. I suppose they’re trying to recoup some of those sales though still because it’s currently only available to buy at a $20 price point on all streaming services. If I wasn’t as curious or into horror as I am, and especially if I didn’t have this blog to help kind of keep me in the know, I probably wouldn’t have bought this or may not have even known it was released at all because there wasn’t a huge marketing machine behind it or anything. I did buy it though, so now I’m here to go over some of my thoughts with y’all. Let’s get into it shall we?!
The story follows a grieving and lonely widow who works as a programmer on robotics and takes an android “companion” meant for lonely people, more like a sexy fembot, home to beta test her and see what corrections need to be made before being released to mass markets. Unfortunately, his loneliness allows him to develop a liking for this fembot in a little sundress (no duh?) and he gets security clearance to mess with and rewrite some of her code and allow her to be and feel more human. Big mistake buddy. Her ability to now understand human emotion and act and react on her own accord, mixed with her programming to adore and serve and protect her 1 companion or “soulmate” was OBVIOUSLY going to be a recipe for disaster, and it was. This film was pretty brutal at times as well and that is something that the M3GAN movies were missing it felt like in a lot of ways. There were still kills and some brutality in M3GAN and I actually enjoy those movies quite a bit, but Sara the Soulm8te android effs some dudes up in this movie and there’s some pretty cool, action-packed sequences of gore. PSA if you’re a man though because there are a couple scenes of wiener mutilation throughout this movie. No good. Lily Sullivan who played Sara did a killer job though (pun intended) and really brought believability to her being an android through her body and facial movements. Her emotionless look, monotoned bluntness, calculated motions, it was human-like but just not quite and she really brought the character to life…ironically. Even how she was able to shed some of the initial robotic awkwardness as the movie progressed and the character of Sara learned more information on how to be human. She was certainly the show stealer of the film.
This movie was pretty smart and pretty fun though albeit a little predictable at times in regard to where and how the story was progressing. This felt scary in a whole different way. Not the normal make your skin crawl kind of spookiness you get from some horror, but more so the very visceral ‘This could be a road we head down in the future as a society’ kind of fear. Which is usually a lot scarier to me as a horror fan because those are the movies that leave you thinking a lot later on. We’re already more isolated from personal interaction and lonelier as a society nowadays just from the tech we already have. God forbid we get some highly attractive, never aging, cares about only you, android life partners. We would never interact again. Humanity would just end because everyone would be happily and willingly in a relationship with a robot. I honestly felt a little sympathy for Sara in this film though too. She was certainly doing some evil things and hurting and killing people in her path, but it was truly only because of the programming that David, her “soulmate”, put into her by bypassing a bunch of her code and safety protocols and giving her more autonomy over herself than an android should’ve truly been given. All because of his personal loneliness and sadness. Then when she showed him that level of ‘I care only for loving and pleasing you’ nature that she’d grown to believe is what human men wanted from the content she consumed it was way, way too much and ended in death and disaster. You felt bad for Aubrey, the human lady, as well for unwittingly becoming a primary target of Sara just for liking David and spending time with him. Doing normal human things that should be sweet and fun turned into a warzone real quick. Some real Android Housewives stuff going on up in here.
Again, I just don’t necessarily understand how or why they kind of just dumped this out on VOD. I know Companion last year with Sophie Thatcher was a bit similar to this in overall concept at least, but still this is Blumhouse’s take on the story, and it’s technically set within the M3GAN universe so it’s expanding that overall story as well. I’m not saying this would’ve made the money that the first M3GAN made or even that it would do that tremendous at the box office or not, but they’re definitely going to lose money on it now and it feels like TOO good of a film to just be unceremoniously dumped out there with little to no marketing and forgotten about. This was like M3GAN, but in a lot of ways more adult I guess you could say. Instead of a grieving little girl’s doll becoming too sentient and willing to kill to protect her, it was a grieving middle-aged man’s sexual companion becoming too sentient and willing to kill for his love. As I mentioned a little bit ago, this one is a bit gorier and more gruesome overall than the M3GAN movies are as well. The story itself maybe isn’t the most groundbreaking or original concept you’ve ever seen and the paths it heads down can be predictable at times, but I was still undeniably entertained. Hopefully it is dropped somewhere that is decently accessible or at least for a more affordable price sometime soon because I think it’s pretty worthwhile if nothing else and should be seen by more people than it is probably ever going to get seen by. That’s not even saying it’s the most incredible movie of all time or anything. Just that it deserved better than what ended up happening to it in its release. I think it’s better than M3GAN 2.0, but I’m not sure about M3GAN or not. Both were pretty strong though in certain aspects. If you feel like buying it then check it out! Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for this one to be available on streaming or to rent for cheaper hopefully at a later date.
That’s all for this one though folks! Thanks for taking some time out today to read along. Make sure to like the page on social media or come back to the website often to keep up with my latest posts over new movies I’ve recently seen, horror films I’m watching (old & new), WWE PLE reviews and breakdowns, and more! Thank you again and until next time, be good to one another!
