R-Rated ‘SOULM8TE’ Inspired by ‘Fatal Attraction’ and ‘RoboCop’

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R-Rated ‘SOULM8TE’ Inspired by ‘Fatal Attraction’ and ‘RoboCop’

Story By #RiseCelestialStudios

This morning, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment unveiled the first trailer for SOULM8TE, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s latest techno-thriller and the first film set within the M3GAN universe. While the first two M3GAN films embraced PG-13 mayhem, SOULM8TE heads into decidedly more adult territory as the franchise’s first R-rated entry, trading killer dolls for obsession, intimacy, and artificial intelligence gone horribly wrong.

From the studio behind Five Nights at Freddy’s and Obsession, SOULM8TE follows a grieving engineer tasked with testing a ruthless tech giant’s new artificially intelligent android. But when he attempts to program her to be a truly sentient soulmate, she develops needs of her own, unleashing a relentless spree of precision-engineered mayhem.

The trailer immediately evokes Obsession, only with an AI girlfriend, while also carrying shades of Companion. It looks like the kind of gleefully over-the-top, high-tech thriller where a love robot goes full Glenn Close, and we’re absolutely here for it.

Speaking with Dread Central ahead of today’s trailer debut, co-writer and director Kate Dolan explained that while SOULM8TE shares thematic DNA with M3GAN, it was always conceived as a standalone story that pushes the franchise into much darker territory.

In fact, Dolan says those more mature themes are exactly what earned the film its R rating, something that immediately separates it from the first two PG-13 M3GAN movies. “M3GAN discussed the idea that we’re offloading the care of our kids onto tech. SOULM8TE was always intended to be a standalone story that picks up that thread of our reliance on tech but pushes it further into more dangerous territory and adult themes, earning us our R rating. There’s shared DNA in the satirical tone of the two films, but SOULM8TE can be enjoyed entirely on its own.”

Dolan also said the film became increasingly relevant as production progressed. What initially felt like speculative science fiction quickly began mirroring the real world. “When I first was working on the script, it felt like science fiction that someone would fall for an AI lover. But as we worked on the movie, that became a reality. The film is about our relationship to technology, and how it can be destructive. I think we can get so caught up in a different reality that we become profoundly disconnected,” she tells us. “Like Obsession, it’s a cautionary tale – but one about what happens when you create something without considering the consequences.”

While the premise naturally draws comparisons to films like Obsession and Companion, Dolan revealed that she actually looked much further back for inspiration. Revisiting the wave of erotic and psychological thrillers from the 1980s and ’90s, she found herself influenced by everything from Dressed to Kill and Basic Instinct to Fatal Attraction, To Die For, Ms. 45, and even RoboCop. “Definitely. I rewatched all my favourite erotic thrillers of the ’80s and ’90s prepping this film. Films like Dressed to Kill, Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, To Die For, Ms .45, but also a movie like RoboCop,” she revealed. “That era really informed the creative decisions in the film. For people who know and love those movies, there are a lot of references to enjoy.”

That’s an eclectic and fascinating collection of influences. Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct make perfect sense for a story about obsession and desire, but RoboCop is perhaps the most intriguing inclusion, suggesting SOULM8TE may also have more on its mind when it comes to corporate technology, consumerism, and humanity’s increasingly uneasy relationship with AI.

Asked what she hopes audiences take away from the film, Dolan said she wants viewers to become more skeptical of technology that’s marketed as the answer to loneliness and human connection. “I would love it if people leave the movie asking what they’re actually being sold when a piece of tech promises to make their life better, promising them connection or comfort. If the film makes someone a little more suspicious of that promise, my job is done.

“And remember, go out and touch some grass.”

SOULM8TE stars Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise, Monolith), David Rysdahl (Alien: Earth, Fargo), Claudia Doumit (Where’d You Go, Bernadette, The Boys), and Arty Froushan (Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Daredevil: Born Again).