Somnium

Somnium follows Gemma, an aspiring actress who moves to LA. She gets a job working a night shift at an experimental sleep clinic that promises to make its clients’ dreams come true. The longer Gemma spends there, she realises it is not all what it seems as mysterious events begin to unravel around her. While the premise of the piece feels somewhat formulaic at first, with the Hollywood cautionary tale approach, although, in terms of tone, it feels much more like a psychological science fiction drama than a horror. While its moments of horror are visceral and grotesque, akin to David Cronenberg’s signature style, the focus seems to be primarily on the inner turmoil the protagonist faces throughout. The characterisation can feel sadly restrained at times and reduced to brief flashbacks with a coming-of-age tonal shift, although the ambiguity almost makes it more intriguing to uncover more around Gemma’s past and present ambition.

The main standout of the piece is Chloë Levine’s performance as Gemma; she is utterly terrific and elevates a lot of the screenplay due to her commanding screen presence and nuance as the protagonist. The supporting cast, including Grace Van Dien, Johnathon Schaech, and Will Peltz, was also solid; their characters portray helping parts of Gemma’s journey positively and negatively as she navigates fame; however, most of the narrative primarily focuses on Gemma throughout the majority of the runtime. Another major standout of the piece is Racheal Cain’s direction. As a debut feature, the production design and camera work were incredibly impressive, deftly directed by Cain with a keen eye for suspense and horror. Even with the film's budget constraints, the VFX are astounding for a smaller feature with a mix of practical and visual effects; some viewers may find certain imagery thoroughly unsettling due to this.

The visual style of the film at times felt neon-drenched with its use of intense saturated colours in the interior scenes within the sleep clinic, with a synth-heavy musical score to accompany the tone stylistically. Scenes set around the sleep clinic tend to be presented within minimal space, almost claustrophobic with its use of tight corners and low-key neon lighting to create greater tension within sequences of terror. While these scenes are remarkable due to their formal prowess, they're sadly underutilised, and some viewers may find this disappointing due to the marketing and premise heavily suggesting scares being the main focus. The tonal balance between psychological drama and horror can feel jarring at times; however, the piece does tend to focus more heavily on the slower characterisation than spectacle. Cain was potentially more interested in utilising horror as a backdrop for a deeper character study.

Thematically, the focus is set around the misfortunes of the Hollywood dream as an aspiring actress. There are perhaps allegories to escapism, such as the dream state within the sleep clinic being a coping mechanism for Gemma, to make her dreams real, even with all the pain she’s suffered from within the nightmare and reality. Similar to the way in which Hollywood is presented, where your dreams come true initially, but in reality, that's not always the case. While the pacing may meander at times with a lack of threat consistently looming over Gemma, the final moments of the piece do wrap up her journey in a satisfying manner that makes the slower moments feel earned in the end.

Somnium is an impressive debut feature from Racheal Cain with an incredible central performance from Chloë Levine at the centre of it all, that prioritises character focus over spectacle-heavy horror set pieces with a unique plethora of technical standouts. While it may suffer from a couple of pacing issues and perhaps a lack of consistent engagement, Cain takes creative risks in making a slow-burning approach to the narrative structure. The piece undeniably wears its influences on its sleeve while being an original force of nature in genre filmmaking.

Somnium will be available on Digital Download from 8th September.