The hierarchy of power in the M3GAN cinematic universe has changed with the direct-to-streaming release of SOULM8TE, a movie about a killer sex robot that only tangentially connects to the previous two M3GAN movies. And if you’re wondering whether this spinoff was unfairly shunted to digital (it was originally planned for theatrical release) after the mixed reception to M3GAN 2.0, while SOULM8TE does have its pleasures, it’s nowhere near as ahead of the times and smartly done as the first M3GAN; more in line with Fatal Attraction, but with a robot.
The plot of the film follows David (David Rhysdal), a software engineer and classic Dead Wife Guy whose partner died suddenly, leading to him working from home until a new company acquires his robotics firm, forcing him to come into the office. Return to office policies? Scary stuff! And early on, SOULM8TE has some smart and pointed jokes about office culture and our obsession with apps (one about the President creating a “Virtual President” so he can be in multiple places at once is particularly weird, and deserves a PR3S1D3NT follow-up film)… But most of that goes by the wayside as soon as David’s new boss Ben (Arty Froushan) introduces the SOULM8TE android the parent company has been developing, a physical extension of their pre-existing chatbot app.
After getting gifted the chatbot and finding it limited, David decides to beta test the bot at home, naming it Sara (Lily Sullivan); and things progress from there. Sexually progress from there, if you know what I mean. True to form for an erotic sci-fi thriller, Sara starts subservient and gets more and more violent once David breaks the safeguard protocols, something he keeps hidden from his work partner and non-robot romantic interest Aubrey (Claudia Doumit).
Look, you know how this all goes, and director/co-writer Kate Dolan keeps things briskly moving throughout as the sex and violence amp up in the vein of the best direct-to-VHS horror sequels of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Unlike the PG-13 M3GAN, this is decidedly R-Rated, with all the nudity, sex, and graphic violence you could want. Yes, bones get broken, penises get exploded, and hands ripped off. There’s boobs and butts and plenty of softly filmed sex scenes while rain pitter-pats outside on the window. It’s exactly the sort of thing Joe Eszterhas would have gone hog wild with back in the day…
…And that’s kind of the problem with SOULM8TE. Unlike Basic Instinct, Sliver, etc, etc, this movie is coming out in 2026, and it’s not being stuck on the bottom shelf at Blockbuster where you can nervously take it to the counter between copies of Jurassic Park and Goonies like you’re buying a cinematic pack of condoms. This is a movie that unfortunately lacks the prescient view of AI and nuance of M3GAN, as well as the cognitive dissonance of a killer little girl robot with a weird face slinking around and doing dance moves to pop songs. SOULM8TE tries to nod to that by giving Sara the oddly fluid body seen with M3GAN (Amie Donald/Jenna Davis), as well as a song and dance sequence to “Lovefool” by The Cardigans. But watching a grown woman who moves robotically but otherwise seems human do all this is nowhere near as weird and funny as M3GAN incongruously singing “Titanium.”
But M3GAN isn’t even the strongest comparison point here, other than the M3GAN Cinematic Universe (MCU?) connection: it’s last year’s Companion, which also featured a sex bot misused by a nebbishy guy (oddly played by Jack Quaid, who is married to Doumit so I guess they have a lot to talk about at home). There’s similar language between the two, even some parallel scenes, and weirdly Sullivan looks and sounds like she could be Companion star Sophie Thatcher’s older sister. But where SOULM8TE doesn’t veer too far from the ‘90s erotic thriller formula, Companion threw out wild twists every 15 minutes or so, and more importantly drilled in on how messed up it is that a man is using and abusing something that, despite its metallic innards, is essentially a thinking, feeling being.
Another movie? While it doesn’t include robots, SOULM8TE also suffers in comparison to this year’s massive hit Obsession (both movies are produced by Blumhouse), which focused on a human woman controlled by a sad-sack man. But where SOULM8TE conclusively paints Sara as the villain, the guy, Bear, is clearly the one at fault in Obsession… It’s a harrowing watch because of this, but seems like a natural, modern extension/reflection on how movies from the Eszterhas era – at least the ones devoid of the satirical sheen provided by director Paul Verhoeven – are viewed today.
SOULM8TE nods to that occasionally, and almost seems to be going in the direction of realizing that David sucks, actually. But every time it starts to give Sara an out from her pre-determined plot path, it gets right back on the rails. This particular plot does even less favors to Doumit’s Aubrey, who keeps coming back inexplicably to David (did I mention he sucks?) when there’s an arguably better version of the movie that has Sara and Aubrey teaming up to kick the crap out of him like the end of Death Proof. But no, SOULM8TE doesn’t want to go that route, even having Sara quip “Don’t try that girl power shit” when Aubrey attempts to appeal to her/it.
It’s unfortunate, too, because there are a number of good performances in the movie. Doumit is charming and funny, as always, and perhaps centering the movie around her a la Allison Williams in the M3GAN movies would have led to more of a feminist and less of a retrograde take. Sullivan is eerie and excellent as well, rotating through several different levels of robotic and ably tackling both action and sex scenes, and everything in between. And Froushan doesn’t get to have nearly as much fun as Ronny Chieng’s similarly vapid tech bro in M3GAN, but you can feel him trying to get there with some often limp satire.
Look, ultimately SOULM8TE isn’t devoid of ideas, from how chatbots are agreeable to a fault and what a non-stop feed of influencer videos can do to one’s psyche. There’s even scenes jumbled in there that venture towards exploring the so-called male loneliness epidemic, and our addiction to apps. And the idea of a series of shlocky horror killer android movies with different focus points (have one set in the office, or a school, or as mentioned earlier: PR3S1D3NT) is fun, even though the connections to M3GAN are limited to those visual cues and a virtual Alexa-type assistant called Elsie, and otherwise don’t make a lot of sense given the plot of M3GAN and M3GAN 2.0.
But audiences – and critics – demand better and more than this. Plunking down $20 to buy a cash-in sequel in 2026 is very different from idly renting a cash-in sequel in 1992. And if the gestures towards more interesting ideas weren’t present, it would be easier to dismiss SOULM8TE. Instead, we’ve got some potentially pointed satire stuck in a movie that doesn’t seem interested in exploring it, and centers the drip of a man when the android is way, way more interesting. There is potential here for a bigger M3GAN anthology-style series, but alongside the misfire of M3GAN 2.0, this thoroughly adequate asseembly-line entry proves the franchise is far from titanium.
SOULM8TE is available for purchase now on most major platforms.
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Share this:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.