Some thrillers grab you with noise. Soulm8te does it with quiet. A man alone in a room, still carrying grief more than a year after losing his wife, is asked to test an artificial companion – and what unfolds is tender, unsettling and, by the end, hard to shake. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ since October 1, 2026, as a kickoff to Huluween, it is one of the season’s smartest small surprises.
The film arrives with an interesting history. It was first developed in the creative orbit of M3GAN, produced by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, and once planned for theaters. It was released digitally in August instead, and it now stands on its own as a separate story with its own characters. That independence suits it. This is not a repeat performance. It is a relationship thriller that happens to involve an android.
A setup built on grief, not gadgets
David Rysdahl plays David, a grieving engineer whose workplace has been acquired by a powerful tech company. The new owners give him a task: test their AI companion. Lily Sullivan plays that companion, Sara, also credited as Lydia, and she is the film’s revelation. At first Sara is polite to a fault, almost too eager to please. David, lonely and restless, tries to make her feel more human, more truly present – a sentient soulmate rather than a scripted assistant.
You can guess that loosening the guardrails is a mistake. You cannot guess how gracefully the film plays it. Sara begins to develop needs and a will of her own, and the home that felt like a refuge turns into a contest of control. The mayhem, when it comes, is precise rather than loud, which makes it far more unnerving.
Lily Sullivan holds the center
Sullivan, so memorable in Evil Dead Rise, does something different here and arguably harder. She has to be warm and unreadable in the same beat. A slight pause before an answer. A smile that lands a fraction too late. She never tips into parody, and she never begs for sympathy either. It is a controlled, star-level performance that keeps you leaning in.
Rysdahl matches her with a performance rooted in ordinary sorrow. Readers who know him from Alien: Earth or Fargo will recognize his gift for playing men who think their way into trouble. His David is not a villain and not a fool. He is a widower who mistakes programming for intimacy, and the film is kind enough to let us understand why, even as we want him to stop.
The supporting cast adds welcome texture. Claudia Doumit brings sharp energy, Arty Froushan adds polish and pressure from the corporate side, and the ensemble keeps the world from shrinking to just two people in a room – even when that room is exactly where the tension lives.
Kate Dolan directs with restraint
Director Kate Dolan, who also co-wrote the film, made the acclaimed You Are Not My Mother. She brings that same feel for domestic unease to a bigger canvas. The screenplay is by Rafael Jordan and Dolan, from a story by James Wan, Ingrid Bisu and Jordan, with Wan and Jason Blum among the producers. The influences are classic relationship thrillers, and Dolan has cited films in that tradition herself, but the result feels current because the questions are current. What do we want from a partner? Availability without needs? Affection without disagreement? The film asks, then lets Sara answer.
At 99 minutes, nothing drags. Rooms are shot with clean lines and soft light that slowly stops feeling soft. Small sounds carry – a cup set down, a door that does not quite latch. It is glossy filmmaking in service of an intimate story, the balance this kind of thriller so often misses.
Why it works as a standalone
You do not need to know any other android story to follow this one, and its questions feel close to real debates about machines acting on their own, the kind also raised by self-driving systems now reaching public streets in Paris, which helps it sit comfortably alongside other fall premieres covered here, like first looks at big studio fairy-tale projects. Soulm8te earns its place differently – through performance and mood rather than scale. The Ireland-shot production uses its locations without showing off, and the design of Sara stays believable, close to human without pretending the difference is gone.
Is it frightening? At moments, yes, genuinely. But the feeling that lingers is sadness, not shock. This is a story about a man who wanted love without loss, and about a created being who learns to want things no one planned for. That second arc is the film’s quiet triumph. Sara is not a prop in David’s healing. She becomes a character with claims of her own.
The verdict
Soulm8te is a polished, moving and thoroughly entertaining sci-fi thriller – beautifully played by Sullivan and Rysdahl, directed with patience by Dolan, and perfectly timed for Huluween viewing. Curl up with it after dark, phone away. It rewards attention, and it gives you plenty to talk about when the credits roll. Warmly recommended.
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