
In the showcase of Chattanooga Film Festival, Racheal Cain’s film ‘Somnium‘ reigns over the competition as her debut feature film. Racheal Cain is known for her works ‘Everything Beautiful’, ‘The Clancy Family Funeral Home’, and ‘Road Dog’. The film is a delicately woven narrative about Gemma (Chloë Levine), a girl filled with aspirations moving to LA to chase her dream after breaking up with her boyfriend.
However, the task is easier said than done. To earn her basic needs, Gemma takes up several sets of night shifts at a sleep research facility – Somnium. Along with being poor in glamour, the job doesn’t offer a good payout either, but at least it is a start. It allows her to pursue auditions for her desired acting role in LA and who knows maybe the job could lead her in the right direction.
Will Peltz, who plays Gemma’s colleague and the company’s dream designer, Noah informs her that a doctor of sports science, Dr. Katherine Shaffer, who was played by Gillian White, facilitated setting it up so that it was centered on her program the words of winning. In other words, it uses the restructuring of an individual’s brain during the period of sleep to ensure that the goal is reached. This, in turn, puts him in charge of creating the dreams that they are required to have.
This is both a captivating and disturbing idea, modifying the characteristics of an individual using sophisticated dreams. More bizarre than any of this is what is occurring in one of the chambers and Gemma believes she sees Gemma Moana’s One Night in Miami. One such procedure is referred to as Cloud 9 and it is rather extreme as this is only ever done to patients who have reached their wit’s end because the treatment in question has the adverse effect of driving them to insanity rather than instilling confidence.
This is Graham Cain as well as explicitly states that Gemma seems to be possessing her own unhappy dreams. They do include a life with her rather dutiful ex-boyfriend Hunter acted by Peter Vack, and many other aspects of their lives in an unidentifiable little city. This is a very different place from Los Angeles and Brooks, who is played by Johnathon Schaech who is the man she appears to be in love with.
Eight years before all this happened, I’ll Never Forget’s Cain, who was referenced as an inspiration in Cain’s post, shared an unusual design for the film. And, while it did take Cain six years, the flashback-cum-dream sequences were expertly done by him in one film which is quite chilling at times. The film contains many references to many films particularly A Nightmare on Elm Street and Come True among many others. The only difference is that they left the ending open ended by design.
And, Mr. Cain, the production designer of the film mentioned these details. Erica Kelsey, Laurie Brenner, and Wendy O’Brien casting were the star-studded cast. Deep Welcome maintained a stunning appearance. Set Decorator Claire Kirk (John Bronco Rides Again) and the Film Director Lance Kuhns (Samantha Rose, Long Gone By) build up a tremendous atmospheric environment for the actors to work in. The building where Gemma lives might as well be haunted by a psychopathic killer. The look of the modern sensor deli is accompanied by the easy lighting of the cannons.
Grace Van Dien and Johnathon Schaech take the lead as the top-billed stars and yes they are quite impressive in what little time they are given on screen. But it is Levine who transforms the film as she vividly brings life to a person striving to regain her self-belief on the quest to accomplish her goals. Peltz appears rather uninteresting in a role which had adequate scope concerning Noah’s character and also to some extent the film, but this turned out to be a disappointing direction.
With Somnium, Racheal Cain has made a remarkable feature film debut. One which combines a serious movie about the price we are willing to pay for our dreams with the medical horrors while telling us that the worst monsters are indeed the people.
For More Movies like Somnium (2024) visit On 123movies.