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Movie of the Day: Somnium
Today’s movie is the recently-released Somnium. It’s a drama/thriller with a familiar setup for the main character, but with some interesting sci-fi and horror twists in her story.
Gemma moves to Los Angeles with big dreams and little money. This small-town girl wants to be an actress, but she has no idea how to begin. As she struggles to get going with her acting career, Gemma needs a job to pay rent. She finds work at a sleep center, Somnium, that specializes in helping people realize their dreams in the waking world. The science fiction behind the process essentially boils down to planting ideas into people’s minds as they sleep so that when they wake up, they believe they are already successful in whatever endeavor they want to get better at. If they truly believe it, chances are they can achieve it.
The gist of the story in Somnium is that Gemma learns more about the sleep center’s activities while at the same time increasingly feeling like a failure in life. Each day without any progress getting acting work wears on her more and more, and that bad feeling is compounded by memories of her life before moving to L.A. To make matters even worse, she also begins having creepy encounters with something that she can’t explain.
The bulk of Somnium plays out like a dark and dramatic psychological thriller that crosses over into a horror movie in relatively brief moments. There’s more horror towards the end, but there’s really only one scene of sustained spookiness right before the final act. However, as a thriller, Somnium is quite good.
Chloë Levine is great as Gemma, and her ability to effectively convey strong emotions will keep most viewers hooked even if the basic story of a broken-hearted struggling actor feels very familiar. That familiarity is actually a benefit to the story, because it allows the writing to play around with our expectations as an audience. I can’t say too much without spoiling a few of the movie’s more interesting twists on the theme, so I’ll just say that some characters play to their type, and some don’t. Having certainty turn to uncertainty makes even the side characters interesting, and it helps keep the story feeling alive throughout.
I also enjoyed how Gemma’s backstory is slowly teased out over time. Because of the gradual way her memories of her hometown life are revealed, it serves as a parallel to her current time living in L.A. Both start out hopeful, but they deteriorate at about the same pace. It’s a smart way to structure the story so that the themes are echoed for maximum impact.
Then there’s the mystery of the experimental procedure happening at the sleep clinic. I mostly liked how it was resolved, but this really did feel like the least important part of the story. In the end, the sci-fi angle seemed like little more than a convenient plot device to give an excuse for the dream-logic of the final act. I mean, that’s literally what it’s there for, but what I’m saying is that a lot of the sleep clinic stuff felt underwritten to the point of being almost an afterthought. Again, I don’t want to spoil what happens, but the finale felt like a way to allow Gemma to confront certain things without really needing to write how she mentally got to that point. It’s not quite a deus ex machina, but it’s in the general vicinity.
Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Despite the ending feeling somewhat unearned and wrapped up a little too easily, I still enjoyed Somnium a lot. I recommend it for fans of psychological thrillers that focus on character drama more than horror or mystery (even though those are there too). You can currently rent Somnium on Amazon Prime Video.
In the News
- An exhibition that goes behind the scenes on Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein will be held in London, England from October 17th through November 9th. The exhibit, titled “Frankenstein: Crafting a Tale Eternal,” will feature props, costumes, jewelry, and artwork from the movie. It will be held at the Old Selfridges Hotel in London, and tickets will be free. (Variety)
- Lou Ferrigno will star in an upcoming horror movie as a pig farmer who sells jerky made out of human flesh. The film is titled The Hermit, and it is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2026. (Variety)
- AEW wrestler MJF and actor Andrew Bachelor have joined the cast of Violent Night 2. The film is currently set for release on December 4, 2026. (Deadline)
- The upcoming survival reality competition show Guts & Glory will release its first two episodes on Shudder on October 14th. The series will then run weekly through November 4th. (Bloody Disgusting)
Birthdays
Virginia Madsen was born on September 11th, 1961. In horror, she famously starred in Candyman (1992) as the inquisitive Helen Lyle. Before that she starred in Zombie High (1987). Since then she pops in horror every few years, including films like The Prophecy (1995), The Haunting in Connecticut (2009), Better Watch Out (2016), and Prey for the Devil (2022).
Also celebrating a birthday today is Tiffany Shepis. Born on this day in 1979, Tiffany has appeared in more than 100 genre films (most of them horror). Her first film roles were in Troma movies including Tromeo and Juliet (1996) and Terror Firmer (1998). Since then a few of her horror highlights include Death Factory (2002), Night of the Demons (2009), Tales of Halloween (2015), and Victor Crowley (2017).
More birthdays on September 11th:
- Brian De Palma (1940) – director of Carrie (1976), Dressed to Kill (1980), Raising Cain (1992)
- Ian Abercrombie (1934) – Puppet Master III (1991), Army of Darkness (1992), Jack Frost 2 (2000)
- Harry Connick Jr. (1967) – Copycat (1995), Bug (2006)
Events on This Day
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth was released on September 11th, 1992. This is the one where Pinhead begins the movie stuck in a pillar inside a nightclub. After he gets out he kills a bunch of people and starts making a few of the franchise’s goofiest Cenobites, like the guy with a video camera in his face and the one whose head is turned into a CD changer. This was also the first Hellraiser filmed in the United States.
On September 11th, 2015, The Visit was released in theaters. After The Last Airbender (2010) and After Earth (2013), M. Night Shyamalan wanted to return to making smaller-scale, more personal films. He self-financed The Visit which is a found-footage horror movie about a young brother and sister who visit their grandparents for the first time. Shyamalan’s gamble on himself paid off, and The Visit turned out to be a solid bounce-back film after a series of critical and commercial struggles.
More movies released on September 11th:
- Night School (1981)
- Sorority Row (2009)
- Scary or Die (DVD, 2012)
