Set inside an experimental sleep clinic called Somnium, dreams become reality, but at a terrifying cost. Side effects may include hallucinations, paranoia, detachment from reality and nightmares that never end. The mind-bending thriller Somnium is written and directed by Racheal Cain, and stars Chloe Levine (The Sacrifice Game, The Transfiguration), Will Peltz (Unfriended), Peter Vack (The Intern, Brittany Runs a Marathon), and Grace Van Dien (Stranger Things).
Before this new thriller hits VOD platforms on September 10 in Australia, Nick L’Barrow spoke with filmmaker Racheal Cain about the long journey taken to make this film, creating the atmosphere of the dreamscape, and the influence of David Lynch on her career.
Nick: It’s very topical to be talking about dreams since we’re doing this interview quite early in the morning where I am! And I think we’ve all had those visceral dreams where when we awake, we don’t know if we’re awake or asleep still! I’m curious to know how you managed to adapt that sensation and feeling into a tonal and atmospheric aspect of the film?
Racheal Cain: That’s a really good question! I’ve been thinking recently about how I’ve only had sleep paralysis once, and it freaked me out so hardcore. Like, if I believe in ghosts or anything, I feel like they could access us through that state. I remember so vividly in high school, I popped awake, and the covers slowly started moving. It sounds so cliche, but when the covers started being pulled, I was completely paralysed. That really freaks me out, that state between wakefulness and sleep, and that definitely influenced the film.
And it’s funny because the main character, Gemma, doesn’t go into a dream state much at all, but we’re living in this suspended disbelief, and a big thing going into that for me was the visuals. I’m a super visual person, so with the colour and production design I wanted a lot of pastel pinks and blues that give this sunset like dreaminess. Then with the production design and the set decoration, I really wanted things to be a little off centre. There’s these, like, oversized props lingering in the background, or maybe you don’t know what time period it’s from. We’re living in this place that’s a little more blurred.
Nick: And how did the sound design work into creating that feeling? The opening scene and this ethereal and off-putting sound you use sets up this really intrusive and abrasive sound mix that exacerbates the dreamscape of the film. What was the collaboration with you sound designer in finding the films soundscape?
Racheal Cain: Yeah, that was so fun! I love music and sound so much. I got really lucky meeting my composer, Mike Forst, who help me create the sound of this creature. We wanted to dig into what scared our main character, and a big part of that was letting go of the past. So, the ex-boyfriend plays guitar, and we took that and flipped it. So, the sound of the creature is this electric guitar with reverb. And like, I hope you feel that on a subconscious level.
But, it was really fun digging into what this creature should sound like, because there were so many options at first. We were looking at animal sounds and stuff like that. But, yeah, I had a really good team and I got so lucky with the sound design, for sure.
Nick: Looking at the characters and themes of the film, there can definitely be a parallel drawn between the allure and illusions of this Hollywood dream that Gemma is chasing, and what she is experiencing at Somnium. Was Gemma being an aspiring actress always what you had envisioned for that character, and how did that meld into the Somnium story?
Racheal Cain: It’s funny, I started writing this film in 2012, and the script has changed so much. But one thing that has stayed the same was that she was moving to LA to become an actress. Maybe it’s because it was an early childhood dream of mine to be an actress, but this is definitely a version of myself, I’m sure in some way. And then basically everything else in the script changed around this chasing of the dream and the dream state.
Nick: How did Gemma evolve when Chloe Levine came on board?
Racheal Cain: So, we were filming for a very long time. We filmed the flashback scenes and memory sequences in 2018, and then we evolved Gemma and the story around that. The present day stuff was shot, like, four years later. So, Chloe was one of the earliest people that came on, and I’m so lucky she stuck with me for that gap of four years.
She came to me through a casting director. I had seen her on The OA and I knew she had this energy. We had a really nice Skype call. She was super cool, and we kind of just talked and communicated through a love of music. We would send each other playlists back and forth, and collaborate on a playlist of what Gemma was listening to. Then we had a playlist for the dreams. She was so prepared, and just such a rock star.
Nick: There is a line of dialogue in the film from Gemma’s dad about how acting is not a financially viable job choice. You mentioned earlier how Gemma is inspired by some of your own dreams of acting in LA, and now you’ve gone on your own artistic journey as a first time filmmaker making an independent production. I believe anyone who has pursued an artistic endeavour can relate to that line of dialogue..
Racheal Cain: Definitely. Definitely. You never make enough. You’re barely hanging on through it all. The first like five years, I was bartending my evenings so during the day I could work on the movie. Then that wasn’t really evolving me much as an artist, so I did a lot of production designing on music videos, and that helped me so much. I was just learning the language of what we were putting on the screen – the art and set decoration of it all. It helped me a lot, and it helped pay the bills.
Nick: Outside the stylistic and tonal elements, and even a band called ‘Twin Peaks’, it very much so feels like David Lynch’s spirit is all over this film. Was has his filmography served for you, not just as a filmmaker, but also as a film lover?
Racheal Cain: Oh, man. It makes me emotional. That was the first time in a long time that someone’s death really gutted me. He just seemed like such a cool guy. He was a painted, the way he looked at films like living paintings. I think that was always in the forefront of my mind with the shot design. Because when you’re designing a film where you have like a tenth of the time you wish you had, you have to be so strategic with shots, and so each one became really intentional.
But he was such a huge influence. Twin Peaks was incredible, And the band being called ‘Twin Peaks’ in the movie wasn’t even planned! That came to us like three days before the film started shooting. We location scouted this AirBNB to film in, and the owner happened to be the older brother of one of the bandmates. And they were like, “You should go film them!” I don’t know, maybe David Lynch was pulling some strings!
Thank you so much to Racheal for her time, and to Light Bulb Films and Walkden Publicity for organising the interview. Somnium is available on VOD from September 10.
