It’s been a long road, but the mysterious new sci-fi horror flick Soulm8te has finally escaped into the wild. If you’re unfamiliar, this sci-fi horror thriller has had a fascinating path to release. And, good news for horror fans, it was actually worth the wait.
Originally green-lit in 2024 as a loose spinoff to M3GAN, the film was put on hold after the surprisingly weak box office opening for M3GAN 2.0 in 2025. Soulm8te was first penciled in to open theatrically in January 2026, but was then pulled from the calendar.
After the first M3GAN became a surprise box office smash, it seemed like the killer robot doll would spawn a whole sci-fi horror sub-genre. But then the sequel crashed and burned at the box office after taking the franchise in a more sci-fi adventure direction (FWIW: I had a blast with M3GAN 2.0, the movie was a ton of fun).
But that underperformance reportedly spooked the studio (understandably), so Soulm8te was temporarily shelved to seemingly put some space between the projects, and also to reconsider the marketing and release strategy. That time was spent honing in the marketing approach, and it has now been positioned more as a standalone erotic sci-fi thriller with a hard-R rating, with little to no mention of the M3GAN connections. The release strategy was also reset, with the film being released directly to video on-demand streaming instead of on the big screen.
Considering the delay and pivot to streaming, it might be easy to assume the film was being dropped from theatrical due to a lack of quality. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. If anything, you really have to think this one could’ve found some space on the big screen, especially in the wake of similar-ish-in-tone horror film Obsession becoming the breakout hit of the summer.
This is a full-fledged Atomic Monster and Blumhouse horror joint, which for horror fans, lends it some automatic credibility from the opening credits. The project was directed and co-written by Kate Dolan, who shows a deft hand with the simple horror premise of “robot companion becomes obsessed and start’s killing.”
Basically, she tried to take the pitch and run with it — and have as much fun as possible along the way.
“[I]t was just like: what would be most fun? What would be really fun to do? What would be fun to film and fun to watch as an audience?,” Dolan told Bloody Disgusting about her approach. “I mean, they were great fun, and all our male cast were very eager and excited to have these death scenes. That was the most exciting day on set when they were getting ready to be completely eviscerated.”
It stars Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise) as the experimental robot companion, who goes a bit haywire after engineer David (David Rysdahl) starts tinkering with her code base. Genre fan favorite Claudia Doumit (The Boys, Timeless) rounds out the ensemble.
There are bits of the recent (and great!) horror film Companion in here, plus some elements of the excellent 2014 sci-fi thriller Ex Machina (which features a similar-ish premise). But Soulm8te carves out its own lane with a straight-up horror approach, and takes full advantage of its R-rating with some gross out kills and gore that can catch you off guard. It also stands fully on its own outside of the M3GAN world, with only the faintest references to that wider universe.
I could absolutely see this one becoming a cult hit for fans of sci-fi horror now that it’s out, and after the wild ride to release, it’s great to see horror fans finally getting a chance to check it out.
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