SOMNIUM (2025)

New On Demand and digital from Yellow Veil Pictures!
Directed/Written by Racheal Cain.
Check out the trailer here!!

Gemma (Chloë Levine) is a small town girl who travels to the big city, hoping to make it as an actress in Hollywood. The struggle is real though, and soon Gemma is desperate for any kind of work. Seeing an add at a sleep clinic called Somnium, Gemma applies to the night gig, watching over sleep study patients undergo the Somnium treatment. It’s basically a glorified babysitting job, but instead of kids, these are just sleeping clients undergoing this new, experimental treatment. But something seems morally off at the clinic as people are snuck through the doors of Somnium in the middle of the night and having the process done to them seemingly against their will. The deeper Gemma investigates, the more she realizes things are not on the up and up. And soon, Gemma begins experiencing night terrors of her own as the tension to get a job as an actress escalates.

Reminiscent of such recent fame-seeking horrors as THE SUBSTANCE or STARRY EYES, SOMNIUM focuses on a central character who more than anything wants shallow goals. For me, it’s always difficult to relate to these types of central characters, but much like Demi Moore in THE SUBSTANCE and Alex Esso in STARRY EYES, SOMNIUM works because it has a central figure that is both likable and worth investing in. Chloë Levine caught my eye in the low-key vampire flick THE TRANFIGURATION. She looks like a young Charlize Theron to me and has a likability that is undeniable. While she was miscast in last year’s THE SACRIFICE GAME as an older teacher looking out for her college students in peril, Levigne really shines in this role as Gemma, a lovable central figure who is definitely flawed, but relatable, nevertheless. Much of what works in SOMNIUM is because of Levine’s sensitive and skillful portrayal of a young soul seeking her dreams.

While a lot of the scares are something we have seen before in other sleep horror flicks like COME TRUE, MARA, THE NIGHTMARE Documentary, and even IT FOLLOWS that basically feel like rejected A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET pitches, SOMNIUM does deliver some solid scares with a bony and creepy sleep demon stalking Gemma in her waking and sleeping moments. The nightmare imagery works well in this subtle story that blurs the lines between dream and reality. These scenes are downplayed, as the film choose to focus on what drove Gemma to leave her home rather than the horrors of fame and fortune. These heavy feelings of guilt for leaving her home town, the friends and family is relatable and gives the film some kind of distinction from the usual star-seeker horrors out there. Still, these moments do get a bit heavy handed the more they pop up in the narrative.

SOMNIUM has a strong story and a wonderfully talented lead in Chloe Levine. Those are the details that raise this film above a lot of the sleep horror films out there. It also has a very creepy performance by Johnathon Schaech who didn’t even recognize until the final credits. All in all, this is a creepy little number that doesn’t really add anything new to the sleep horror subgenre, but still turns out to be entertaining nevertheless.