Overview
- The film was made as a spin‑off set in the M3GAN universe but Universal canceled its planned theatrical rollout and instead released it on digital and VOD after shopping the title to other buyers.
- SOULM8TE follows a recently widowed machine‑learning engineer who customizes a prototype companion, with those code changes pushing the story into escalating jealousy and violence without resolving larger moral questions.
- Major critics described the movie as leaning on '80s and '90s erotic‑thriller tropes and borrowing beats from recent AI romance and sexbot films, calling it watchable but largely derivative.
- Reviewers singled out Lily Sullivan's performance as a compelling, chilly presence, and technical details list the film as R‑rated and roughly 99 minutes long, directed by Kate Dolan and backed by Blumhouse.
- Industry coverage says the quiet digital release and mixed reviews make a near‑term sequel unlikely and illustrate a studio shift toward lower‑risk distribution after the prior M3GAN sequel underperformed.