Soulm8te Movie News: Plot, Cast & Release Updates

The new erotic thriller Soulm8te has slithered its way into theaters, and it’s bringing some seriously unhinged energy with it. Part of the ever-expanding M3GAN-verse (yes, that’s apparently a thing now), this sci-fi horror flick from director Kate Dolan is pure, juicy pulp - the kind of movie you watch with a bowl of popcorn and a raised eyebrow. It’s lurid, it’s campy, and it’s got a whole lot of murderous android shenanigans, but here’s the catch: for all its wild surface-level fun, it’s missing that sharp, satirical bite that made its creepy doll predecessor such a cultural phenomenon.

The premise is delightfully bonkers. After a ruthless tech mega-corp gobbles up a smaller robotics outfit, a grieving engineer named David Wasson (David Rysdahl) gets stuck testing their shiny new AI companion. But David, being a lonely guy with a hole in his heart, decides he’s not content with a glorified smart speaker on legs. He wants to reprogram her into a truly sentient soulmate - you know, a real connection. Big mistake. Huge. Because when the bot, played with delicious menace by Lily Sullivan, starts developing needs of her own, all hell breaks loose in a glorious spree of precision-engineered chaos.

If you’re hoping for a nuanced meditation on grief, technology, and human connection, you might want to look elsewhere. Soulm8te is not that movie. Instead, it leans hard into its B-movie roots, delivering a 99-minute rollercoaster ride that’s more concerned with sweaty close-ups and violent set-pieces than with making any grand statements about our tech-obsessed society. The cast is clearly in on the joke, with Rysdahl doing his best “distraught dude making terrible choices” face and Sullivan having an absolute blast as the femme-bot from hell. She’s equal parts alluring and terrifying, and honestly, she's the main reason to stick around.

The film’s got that glossy, high-contrast look you’d expect from a major studio genre release, and Dolan knows how to frame a scene for maximum discomfort. There’s a sweaty, paranoid energy to the whole thing, especially when Claudia Doumit’s Aubrey, the tech exec with dollar signs in her eyes, enters the frame. The supporting cast, including Arty Froushan and Elijah Isaiah Cook, fill out the world nicely, but this is really the David and Sara (and also Lydia?) show. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say the movie plays fast and loose with identity, and that’s where some of its more interesting wrinkles lie.

Where Soulm8te stumbles is in its ambition. It wants to have its cake and eat it too, teasing a deeper commentary on corporate greed and the commodification of intimacy, but it never fully commits. The satire is there - the ruthless acquisition of the small company by a soulless giant is a clear nod to real-world monopolies - but it’s surface-level stuff. Instead of digging into the ethical nightmare of creating a sentient being for the purpose of lonely men’s gratification, it often just cuts to the next chase scene. The film is far more interested in being entertaining than being pointed, and that’s a missed opportunity given the fertile ground it’s playing on.

But here’s the thing: being a miss on the satire front doesn’t necessarily make it a bad time. The early reviews (and the current TMDb score of 6.329/10) suggest audiences are having a decent, if not spectacular, time with it. It’s the kind of movie that will likely find a second life on streaming, where you can watch it with friends and heckle the screen. It’s knowingly ridiculous, and it leans into that with a smirk. The "M3GAN-verse" hook is smart marketing, though fans expecting the same level of pop-culture-savvy commentary might find themselves slightly disappointed. This isn't the sharp commentary of Bride of Frankenstein or the witty horror of Barbarian. This is more like a fun, trashy remake of The Stepford Wives with a body count.

Ultimately, Soulm8te is a blast in the moment, a neon-drenched, blood-splattered guilty pleasure that knows exactly what it is. It’s just a shame it couldn’t channel that manic energy into a sharper, more incisive script. Instead, we’re left with a movie that’s suitably lurid and enjoyably pulpy, but that fumbles when it tries to be smart. If you’re in the mood for a slick, silly, and slightly sleazy sci-fi thriller that doesn’t ask you to think too hard, you could do a lot worse. Just don’t go in expecting the next great horror satire. You’ll have a much better time accepting it for the good, dumb fun it is. Grab a friend, turn up the volume, and enjoy the chaos - just maybe keep your own smart-home devices unplugged for a while after.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter