SOULM8TE review
You can take a Blumhouse movie out of the theaters…but you can’t take the Blumhouse out of the movie.
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SOULM8TE
Directed by Kate Dolan
Screenplay by Rafael Jordan and Kate Dolan
Starring Lily Sullivan, David Rysdahl and Claudia Doumit
SOULM8TE Review
I’ve been anticipating SOULM8TE for all the wrong reasons. Ever since the release of M3GAN 2.0 I’ve been fascinated by what this movie might be. They dropped the ball so hard with M3GAN 2.0 by turning their backs on the horror fans that made the original such a monster hit that the promise of an R rated horror movie set in the universe was an exciting proposition. Then they cancelled its planned theatrical release and left it in limbo for several months. When it was announced, quite recently, that SOULM8TE would be dropping onto VOD…my intrigue only grew. Did they have another bomb on their hands? Or were they misreading the horror market like they had with the entire production of M3GAN 2.0?
Those are fair questions when it comes to Blumhouse, in particular. The once mighty horror studio has been churning out an endless wheel of crap for a good long while now. Pulling SOULM8TE from the market when they’re perfectly content dropping awful movies into theaters all the time? Fascinating. Now…the truth is probably that the disastrous returns on M3GAN 2.0 decided the (no pun intended) fate of this movie regardless. And that someone at Universal made this call since Blumhouse has shown time and again they have no shame in the quality of their product. But it still leaves the actual quality of SOULM8TE in question. Which is what made its release onto VOD an interesting proposition.
At the time of this writing the only way to (legally) view SOULM8TE is by ponying up 20 bucks to buy a digital copy. It’s another dubious choice, to be honest. While 20 dollars is cheaper than taking a date to see it at the theater…it’s still more than a movie ticket. And I’m not sure how far the reach of this niche “erotic thriller sci-fi horror” movie extends beyond solo horror lovers. I just have a hard time picturing a couple choosing this as their date night with so many theatrical options out there. But, as we’ve seen, horror has been hitting hard at the box office since they pulled SOULM8TE from the docket. So, I guess we’ll never know.
What we do know is that you probably shouldn’t drop 20 dollars on this movie. It falls into classic “wait for a rental” territory. Glass half full…that means it’s worth watching at all. That positions it firmly ahead of most recent Blumhouse productions and ahead of the M3GAN 2.0 debacle that relegated it to the trash heap in the first place. I shouldn’t call direct to VOD a trash heap…plenty of quality movies come out this way and any distribution a movie can secure is a win. But, when you’re announced as the next branch of a growing film franchise and you are pulled from theaters because that franchise dies immediately upon the release of its second movie…trash heap works. It’s just not SOULM8TE’s fault that it happened.
As for the actual movie…it’s fine. Lily Sullivan is the reason to watch it. It’s exactly as predictable as you expect from the world of M3GAN and even with its R rating it plays too safely for my liking. When the movie finally kicks into violent territory…it neuters its best ideas with PG-13 impulses. As if they were already preparing to release this movie with a PG-13 theatrical cut and sell the R rated version as a VOD exclusive. Because that’s exactly the kind of thing they do.
SOULM8TE is like someone took parts Companion, Her and Fatal Attraction and threw them in a blender. Actually…that’s all the description you need right there. Imagine the AI from Her being put into a Companion like robot and eventually going Fatal Attraction on anyone who stands in the way of her and the man she loves. That’s SOULM8TE. And it isn’t bad. Sullivan’s performance is a big part of why. The movie is never scary, but she is believable at everything she brings to her role as Sara. She’s seductive and intimidating. She’s charming and brutal. The problem is that she is all of these things in an entirely predictable story.
What stood out most while watching SOULM8TE is that its director is doing what she can within the confines of the Blumhouse trap. Things have to be a certain level of glossy and mainstream. Blumhouse movies lost their edge so long ago it’s difficult to remember a time before their formula existed. SOULM8TE tries to drill down on the inner thoughts of its main character, a widower tasked with testing the new AI, but it’s all just so…clean. A limited number of characters ensures you understand what everyone’s role in the plot will be with no surprises. It takes far too long for the selling point of the story to finally play out for the first time. No offense to the story…but it isn’t interesting enough to wait until halfway through the movie for the robot to do some bad things. We know she’s going to. That’s why we’re watching.
Well…it’s why most people who watch it will be watching. I wanted to see if it was another massive Blumhouse dud that misread the market. It still did the latter…but, funnily, it’s one of their better efforts anyway.
Scare Value
Apologies for the bulk of the review focusing on everything happening around SOULM8TE but it’s, frankly, the most interesting aspect of the whole thing. The movie is fine. It’s held back by predictability both on screen and off. But Lily Sullivan continues to show her genre chops and there are a few good ideas in here. It’s all sanitized in that loathsome Blumhouse style…but SOULM8TE manages to overcome a lot of it and deliver a watchable movie. Just…wait for those rentals to appear before you watch it.
2.5/5
SOULM8TE Link
Buy on VOD from Amazon and Fandango at Home
