Movies
[Remember This?] Original ‘Saw’ Trailer Ushers In a New Horror Era!
In October we’ll be celebrating the 10 year anniversary of James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s Saw, which was put into wide theatrical release on October 29th, 2004. To me this is hugely significant since the film, along with Hostel four months later, helped usher in a new era of horror.
Some people call it “Torture Porn”, but Mr. Disgusting and I don’t think torture porn actually exists. It’s true that a lot of these films were markedly more brutal than their mainstream predecessors, but to call them porn implies that we’re just patiently wading through the movie to get to the money shots (the kills, in this case). That’s not the case. If anything, I’d argue that some of the sh*ttier slasher movies fill the porn model more fittingly. Films where we’re tolerating flat, poorly acted characters just waiting for the brief moments of pleasure when they’re dispatched. If we’re talking about intent, that’s porn. Saw and Hostel had plenty of interesting ideas and ambition that outstripped the lazy retreads that were littering the landscape and they were unfairly punished with that term.
In the case of Saw, it’s interesting to see how this new wave of horror was initially marketed to the public. Show them too much and they’re turned off, show them too little and you never gain their interest in the first place. I actually think the trailer does a nice job of setting up both Jigsaw’s modus operandi and the queasy concept of sawing through your own foot. It places the focus on the film’s innovative concept, the acknowledgement of which single handedly dispels the notion of “torture porn.”
After multiple delays, Blumhouse Atomic Monster finally launches the newest android that is sure to light your fire while keeping you on the edge of your seat: SOULM8TE is set to release soon.
SOULM8TE arrives on Digital on August 1, 2026, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise, Monolith) stars alongside Claudia Doumit (“The Boys”). The spinoff is described as a ’90s-style erotic thriller with a “new technological twist.”
David Rysdahl also stars in the upcoming SOULM8TE.
The film follows “a man (Rysdahl) who acquires an Artificially Intelligent android (Sullivan) to help him cope with the recent loss of his wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, the man inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate.”
Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother) directs. The filmmaker rewrote an original draft from Rafael Jordan (Salvage Marines), based on a story by James Wan, Ingrid Bisu and Jordan.
“When Blumhouse Atomic Monster first approached me about an erotic thriller set in the M3GAN-verse, I thought, are you insane? But something drew me in. We exist in a bizarre time where companies sell us ‘connection’ through apps, algorithms, and AI. Yet those are the same forces pulling us apart. The lonelier we get, the more dependent we become on the tools doing the pulling,” states Dolan. “SOULM8TE is a movie about that vicious cycle. It is a satirical, unhinged movie that explores desire, obsession, autonomy, and control. It’s a movie that knows how ridiculous it is, and I’d argue it’s best watched the way you’d watch Basic Instinct or Showgirls now, with friends, a drink in hand, and zero shame about shouting at the screen.”
Producer and Blumhouse Atomic Monster CEO, Jason Blum says, “Kate Dolan has expertly blended tech paranoia with erotic thriller in SOULM8TE, which is just as fun as that sounds, but also has more on its mind than you might think.”
Watch the new trailer below that unleashes a new killer AI bot, this time for an older demographic. SOULM8TE is rated “R” for “Strong violence, gore, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.”
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