[Review]: Somnium

Chasing your dreams and starting over in a brand new city can be hell, and no one knows this better than Gemma, an aspiring actress who’s left her small town and old life behind in order to make it big. When she takes up a supplemental job in an experimental sleep clinic, she begins to experience hallucinatory images and her dreams soon blend into nightmares. 

Directed and written by Racheal Cain, Somnium stars Chloë Levine as the young and bright-eyed Gemma who arrives in Los Angeles with hopes and dreams that, as the days go on and her rent bills begin to pile up, seem to soon be dematerializing at an alarming rate. Despite meeting and befriending a well-meaning producer, Chloë begins to circle the drain and finds her sanity coming into question, especially when her night shift at the Somnium Clinic, overseen by Dr. Katherine Shaffer (played by Gillian White) begins to influence her in seeing terrifying visions of what are seemingly ghoulish sleep paralysis demons. 

The concept of the state of the human mind and psyche during sleep, especially pertaining to dreams and sleep paralysis is a fascinating concept ripe with plenty of fodder for a horror film to explore, and whilst Somnium flirts with a few of the possible sleep themed themes, it never fully develops the subject matter, and instead chooses to concentrate on the dashed hopes and dreams of protagonist Chloë, which causes the film to lean slightly towards more of a coming-of-age teen drama more than a terrifying journey into the expanse of the sleeping human mind. 

When the film does decide to concentrate on the state of the patients of the sleep experiment clinic, and any other danger that befalls the young actress, it very quickly skips over this before we see yet another flashback of Chloë and her terribly boring insufferable “musician” ex-boyfriend. Whilst it does have flashes of a very valid commentary of the exploitation and danger young people can experience in big cities whilst chasing their dreams, it never feels as developed and fully explored as say 2014’s Starry Eyes. 

Somnium definitely has potential, but less melodramatic emotional teen drama and more creepy sleep paralysis demons would have benefitted the film greatly. 

2.5 Screams out of 5

Somnium is available on Digital Download from 8th September