This spin-off film follows a grieving software engineer (David Rysdahl) who, after his wife’s death, is given an interesting job by his tech-giant employer: he’s supposed to “test” an android (who looks like a conventionally attractive blonde woman) designed to act as a romantic partner. As you might expect, this doesn’t appear to go very well.
Coming off the massive success of Obsession, which was also produced by Blumhouse, it’s hard not to compare Soulm8te to its ascendant counterpart. Both are about sad boy protagonists who find a dangerous woman “obsessed” with them. The main difference is that this movie looks considerably more over-the-top, with its trailer teasing lots of grisly deaths at the hands of its Terminator-like antagonist (Lily Sullivan). One guy seemingly gets a stiletto through the mouth, while a romantic rival is drowned in a bathtub.
Soulm8te is being directed by Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother), with a screenplay by Dolan and Rafael Jordan (Salvage Marines, Taken: The Search for Sophie Parker). It’s being produced by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster and distributed by Universal Pictures.
“When Blumhouse Atomic Monster first approached me about an erotic thriller set in the M3GAN-verse, I thought, are you insane?” Dolan said in a press release. “But something drew me in. We exist in a bizarre time where companies sell us ‘connection’ through apps, algorithms, and AI. Yet those are the same forces pulling us apart. The lonelier we get, the more dependent we become on the tools doing the pulling.” She further explained, "It's a movie that knows how ridiculous it is, and I'd argue it's best watched the way you'd watch Basic Instinct or Showgirls now, with friends, a drink in hand, and zero shame about shouting at the screen.”
The film was originally planned for a theatrical release when it was greenlit in June 2024, but plans changed, likely because M3GAN 2.0 only made $39.1 million at the box office compared to its predecessors’ $181.8 million, eventually leading to Soulm8te being shelved. Luckily, it will see the light of day with a straight-to-digital retail release before landing on subscription streaming services in a few months (given that the movie is being distributed by Universal, this probably means it’s coming to Peacock).
We’ll find out whether Soulm8te can top the many movies with a similar premise (e.g., Ex Machina, that Black Mirror episode which also featured Domhnall Gleeson, etc.) when it comes out in August.
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Image: Blumhouse/Universal Pictures
English (US) ·