Overview
- Soulm8te was scheduled for a January 2026 wide theatrical release but Universal shelved that plan, briefly shopped the title to other distributors, and released the film to digital and VOD on Aug. 1.
- The film follows a grieving machine-learning engineer who alters a prototype companion named Sara and whose programming changes lead to possessive and violent behavior without resolving the central human moral questions.
- Directed by Kate Dolan and co-written by Rafael Jordan, the cast includes Lily Sullivan as Sara with David Rysdahl and Claudia Doumit in lead roles, and the movie runs about 99 minutes and is rated R.
- Critics generally call the film polished and watchable but predictable, praising Sullivan’s chilling performance while faulting the screenplay for leaning on familiar 'psycho-lover' tropes rather than offering fresh insight.
- Industry observers say the VOD release reflects broader franchise fatigue after M3GAN 2.0’s poor returns and could limit the M3GAN-verse’s expansion while affecting the commercial prospects for the filmmakers and cast.