Interview With ‘SOMNIUM’ (2025) Writer/Director Racheal Cain

PopHorror: I’m going to get into the origins of the story. What first sparked the idea for a sleep clinic where dreams become real, and how did that concept evolve into Somnium?

Racheal Cain: Um, well, I like to tell the story about how when I was a kid, my dad made a DIY sensory deprivation tank in our garage. So, it’s kind of always been around, this idea of creating your own reality. They were big on The Secret growing up, so that’s always been part of my family, my household conversation — which is crazy but awesome.

And then, honestly, it kind of just hit me one day because I was writing this movie. I knew I wanted it to be horror and I was examining what scares people. I wanted the character to be caught in the past with this heartbreak story, but also obsessed with the future. I had written the flashbacks and actually shot them all in 2018.

Then there was this four-year gap before I was able to raise the rest of the money to shoot the L.A. scenes of this clinic. That actually came after the flashbacks, and one day it just hit me: if she’s supposed to be obsessed with the future, then she should work at this clinic that promises to make that happen for people.

PopHorror: From what I’ve read, the film blends psychological horror with industry satire. How did you balance those tones without letting one overpower the other in the story?

Racheal Cain: Yeah, this whole movie is a balancing act. It was until the last day of working on it because there are so many different genres at play: the flashback love story, working in the industry, trying to make her future dreams come true.

Honestly, I balanced it through trial and error. We did a lot in the edit to balance things out, and also with music. Music was a huge component in tying all the pieces together. We found this synthwave score that was really cool — it could be beautiful when it needed to be but also haunting and scary when it needed to be.

It was a challenge for sure, but I’m proud that it has all these different elements. I think that makes it kind of unique.

Somnium: Chasing Dreams

PopHorror: Let’s get into the dream logic aspect. This movie does deal with dreams, right? And I’m not incorrect about that? Dreams can be abstract and hard to capture — what techniques did you use to make the dream sequences feel immersive and unsettling without losing clarity?

Racheal Cain: I do know what you’re saying. But the fun thing is, she’s not actually really in a dream. We don’t actually see dreams until something happens way at the end. It’s more like her chasing this dream of her future vision, but actually being in a dream doesn’t really happen. I leave it kind of ambiguous for the audience.

Until we finally enter — no spoilers — this sequence with visual effects and intense music. That was fun, working with my VFX artists to see what was possible on our tiny budget.

We never had enough money, so we decided to invest in like ten really cool establishing shots to plant the viewer where they needed to be. The rest happens in this kind of black space, and we trusted the audience’s mind to fill in the gaps. I think it works pretty well for our budget.

The Hollywood Aspect

PopHorror: There’s a Hollywood aspect to this movie. How did you decide to tackle that?

Racheal Cain: To be honest, I started writing this in 2012 when I moved to L.A. I knew I wanted to set my movie there. At that point, I was interested in acting. I was exploring that perspective, maybe even considering acting myself, but I ultimately found being behind the camera way more fun.

But yeah — L.A. is a twisted place. It can be scary, and it’s so easy to get pulled in the wrong direction. As a girl in my early 20s, I saw how easy it was to be told what you’re supposed to be, to chase the wrong things. That definitely influenced the script. I thought the setting was ripe with potential for being freaky.

PopHorror: Well, to be fair, there’s potential for being pulled in the wrong direction pretty much anywhere you go.

Racheal Cain: Definitely, especially now with social media and all these influences constantly around us. Anywhere now, really.

PopHorror: …But, you know, in rural areas they don’t depict Leatherface for no reason. Things do go awry.

Racheal Cain: Absolutely — and probably more terrifying in rural areas as well.

PopHorror: Chloe Levine received awards for the role. What was your collaborative process with her like, and how did you shape the character?

Racheal Cain: She’s an absolute genius in this movie. If you need any reason to watch it, it’s her performance. It blows me away. I could watch it over and over again and still see different things in her eyes every time.

I knew her work from The OA and The Transfiguration. My casting director urgently pitched her as an option, and I was all in. We had a little Skype call, hit it off, and once I decided to go with her, a lot of our collaboration was through music.

Back in 2012, we’d make playlists and send them back and forth: what Gemma would listen to during heartbreak, what she’d listen to when first arriving in L.A., hopeful. Music is like a cheat tool for getting to the heart of emotion.

We shot everything completely out of order, so having those songs helped her drop into the right headspace. Beyond that, I just had to give it over to her because it was so chaotic on set — and she nailed it. Her performance is one of the best parts of the movie.

Visual Design

PopHorror: The visual design — the sleep clinic is central to the film’s atmosphere. What inspired the look and feel of it?

Racheal Cain: We shot the flashbacks first in 2018, four years before the clinic scenes. I actually designed the flashbacks myself because there were only like ten of us on set. My inspiration was the sunset — I wanted dreaminess and freedom, warm tones.

When we finally got to L.A., I hired Olivia McManus, my production designer. I told her, “Here’s what I have — can you dial it up?” And she went wild with it. It was her first feature, which is insane because she crushed it.

We talked about making things feel off-kilter: oversized props, set decorations from all different years and styles, so you’re not really sure where you are in time and space. That ambiguity tied into the movie’s bigger question: what is real?

PopHorror: And as far as Los Angeles goes, what was the allure of Hollywood in terms of the characters?

Racheal Cain: Honestly, I was just living there. It wasn’t a totally intentional backdrop. But dreams are alive there. It’s the city of dreams — everyone you meet is chasing something. It just felt natural to set the movie there.

PopHorror: The festival response has been good. It won an audience award — or multiple?

Racheal Cain: Yeah, we won two.

PopHorror: What surprised you most about how audiences connected with the movie?

Racheal Cain: It always surprises me. We’re still continuing our theatrical run, and it’s so fun sitting in Q&As, hearing all the different things people take away that I didn’t even think of.

That’s the coolest part — people receive it in such different ways. I like leaving things ambiguous, almost like a poem or a tarot reading: you get what you get from it. Hearing their interpretations has been amazing.

Somnium and Impact

PopHorror: Beyond the horror aspect, the movie has themes of ambition, identity, and exploitation. What conversations do you hope viewers will have after watching Somnium?

Racheal Cain: I hope the conversation gets into fear — what scares us most. The world is a scary place right now. For me, the message was always that fear lives in the mind.

If we can root ourselves in the present, instead of being stuck in the past or the future, things aren’t as scary — or at least they’re easier to face.

PopHorror: Having brought Somnium from concept to acclaim, how has the project shaped what you want to explore in your next films? Or is this a one-and-done kind of thing?

Racheal Cain: Sometimes I wonder if I can do it again because it took so long. But I’d love to. I’d just do it differently. I chose a very large movie for my first. Next time I’d keep it smaller — fewer characters, fewer locations.

My favorite week on set was when we were in her apartment the whole time. We could really dig in, be creative, maybe add shots instead of cutting everything. That was so nice.

Chloe and I were just talking about writing a movie set in a cabin in the woods, camping out for three weeks while shooting. That’s my dream.

PopHorror: Like a Friday the 13th kind of thing?

Racheal Cain: Maybe a little different.

PopHorror: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Racheal Cain: No, that felt pretty comprehensive. Honestly, just that the movie’s finally out in the world. As of Tuesday, it’s on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, all the digital apps. You can finally watch it without having to go to a festival, which is really cool.

So yeah — check it out, tell your friends. It’s a complete indie movie. It was hard, but I think people will be surprised by the production value on screen.