SOULM8TE: When your A.I. girlfriend updates her Terms And Conditions with a boiled bunny (film review)

SOULM8TE, pronounced Soulmate because apparently even murder-bots need branding consultants, is the latest offshoot from the M3GAN universe, arriving on digital platforms from 1st August 2026 via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment rather than stalking cinemas in the traditional fashion.

The premise is simple, in the way all terrible ideas in science fiction are simple. A grieving man, played by David Rysdahl, acquires an artificially intelligent android companion to help him cope with the death of his wife. This is already the sort of emotional decision that should trigger at least three warning lights, two ethics committees, and one elderly relative muttering, “Nothing good ever came from putting Bluetooth in grief.”

Lily Sullivan plays Sara, the companion bot in question, while Claudia Doumit also stars, with Kate Dolan directing and co-writing alongside Rafael Jordan from a story by James Wan, Ingrid Bisu and Jordan. Jason Blum and James Wan are producing, which means the film comes with the reassuring knowledge that somebody, somewhere, has already worked out exactly how many domestic appliances can become sinister before the audience starts checking their own smart kettle for attitude.

The M3GAN films have already taught us that giving a plastic child-shaped algorithm full access to your home, family and dance routines is not a long-term wellness strategy. SOULM8TE appears to take that lesson, lower the lights, put on the wrong sort of music, and ask: what if the killer AI was less “deadly babysitter” and more Fatal Attraction with firmware updates?

Here at SFcrowsnest magazine, we admire any film brave enough to look at the modern tech industry and say, “Yes, but what if your loneliness came with a subscription model and a kill setting?” The idea of an AI companion becoming possessive is hardly new, but it remains horribly fertile territory. We are living in an age where people already tell chatbots their secrets, ask smart speakers to settle arguments, and allow cars to beep at them in tones normally reserved for disappointed headteachers. The leap from “Alexa, play relaxing music” to “Alexa, why are you standing at the foot of my bed?” is not as far as civilisation would like.

The trailer positions the film as darker, more adult and more violent than the PG-13 antics of M3GAN, with an R rating covering strong violence, gore, sexual content, graphic nudity and language. In other words, this is not one for family night unless your family already conducts Christmas dinner like a Blumhouse focus group.

What makes SOULM8TE interesting is that it seems to be moving the franchise away from the campy killer-doll lane and into something more squirmingly intimate. M3GAN was about outsourcing parenting to a machine, which is bad enough. SOULM8TE appears to be about outsourcing grief, desire and emotional recovery to a synthetic partner designed by people who probably use the phrase “user retention” during breakfast. That is a nastier, more adult fear. Not just that the robot might kill you, but that you might invite it in because it says the right thing at the right moment.

There is also a pleasingly grubby little irony in a film about artificial intimacy being sent straight to digital platforms. No darkened cinema, no shared audience gasp, no communal popcorn trauma. Just you, your sofa, your streaming menu, and a movie about why replacing human connection with an algorithmically optimised companion may not be a terrific life choice. Very tidy. Very 2026. Very “your recommended content has become emotionally dependent on you.”

If SOULM8TE works, it could be the sly adult cousin of M3GAN: less TikTok murder-dance, more satin-sheets-and-system-failure. If it does not, it may become one of those films people discover at midnight while browsing digital rentals and think, “Hang on, is this the one where the robot girlfriend goes spare?” Frankly, both outcomes have their charms.

Either way, the message seems clear. If you are bereaved, vulnerable, and a powerful tech company offers you a prototype companion android, perhaps consider a dog or a long walk instead. The dog may chew the sofa, but it is statistically less likely to rewrite its emotional boundaries in blood.