SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hello, my fellow Dreadites. Welcome back to the Dread Alert Podcast. Today we're joined by Rachel Kane, director of Somnium. We recently reviewed this film, and it is outstanding, visually striking, and asks some pretty interesting questions about self-discovery. Rachel, thank you for your time today.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to chat.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

First and foremost, let me just say how much I truly enjoyed the film. I thought it had a surreal quality, also a dreamy and romantic quality in some of those flashback sequences. You have such a unique visual style as a director. And I just can't tell you how much I had a good time watching it. As dark as it gets, it was still a very empowering and good time. Yay, that's awesome. Yeah. I'm curious, did you have any inspirations both visually? Because I feel like the visuals are such a big component of this film, or in your general approach to directing and to the work. Who inspired you?

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Ooh, so many. Um well, you know, we have all these different components in the film, and we shot those components in two different phases. So the first phase uh we filmed in 2018, and you know, my influences were probably a little different than when we ended up picking back up in 2021, four years later. So um I knew I always wanted the flashbacks to feel different, um, kind of warm, more free, you know, full of life. And so Terrence Malik was a big like visual inspiration for those. Um, definitely. But then, you know, I wanted the the LA scenes to feel different, but also just kind of like a dialed up version, maybe of that, um, visually with the color, we more saturated. Um, we locked down the camera because we wanted to feel claustrophobic in LA. So everything's on Dolly, which was a challenge, but fun. Um, and for those, you know, I was I'm always influenced by a lot of classic horror, um, a lot of the old female-led classic horror, um, Rosemary's Baby Repulsion, all the good ones. Um, but then, you know, as we were going on, Stranger Things was coming out, that became an influence um sort of in the tone and our like target audience. So that I'm sure impacted me visually. But yeah, so many, so many different films.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

I I love that. My next question was actually, you know, I know that you shot this in two parts, and if there were differences in your approaches, and I love to hear that the camera was locked down. It worked so effectively. And I think that the creature design in this was also used sparingly and was also extremely effective. How did that come about? Was it mostly practical? What was the design process like with the creature? Because I I it frightened me, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Yeah, me too. On set, I'm not even kidding. So, um, the cool one of the coolest things, one of the things I'm most proud of is the creature is like 97% special effects makeup. So he really looked like that on set, which made it filming so much better and so much easier to get those, you know, terrified reactions from Chloe. Actually, the first time that she saw him um totally in full makeup was that shot when she turns in the hallway. We didn't tell her, we had him for the first day fully dressed. It took like six hours to get him ready, but just in time, we like snuck him into the hallway and had him standing there. So when she turns, she really sees him for the first time. That was so fun. Um, we have like a behind-the-scenes video of that. I got a post. But yeah, that was so fun coming up with what this creature would look like. You know, what does he have a mouth? What do the eyes look like? You know, and I went back and forth a lot with the uh creature designer Ian von Kromer, who is incredible, and the lead special effects makeup person, Olga Turnavetska. They were both so talented. Um and then yeah, you know, once we got into the edit, it became a lot of back and forth of how much of this we want to show. We had so much footage of it, but then it's like this paring down because you don't want to, you have to unveil him slowly. And and a lot of times the the scariest things is what you don't see and what your brain is filling in. So um we ended up stripping away a lot of what we had shot in in the final film just to sort of tease him out, you know. So yeah, definitely a lot of collaboration.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

I can't imagine how challenging that is going through and removing things that you've shot, but restraint, your your restraint specifically was so well managed in this film. I think that that was a service to the monster itself. And I'm so glad you mentioned Chloe because outside of the visual aspects of this film, I think the performances are so incredibly noteworthy and grounded and lived in. Did you have an approach to working with the actors to evoke some of those performances from them?

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Um, you know, independent film when you have no time for rehearsals, um, a lot of it is just like, let's do the work in prep and cast the right people. Um, so yeah, just spend a lot of time in casting, just digging through um all of their previous work. Uh Chloe, I had known from the OA and Transfiguration. She's so good in all in everything she's done. But um yeah, you know, she hadn't really had this like starring role yet. And I knew she could do it, and we just had a really nice rapport. And um, yeah, if if you need one reason to watch it, it's just her performance. She's incredible. It like truly blows me away. Even still, I watch it for the 800th time and I like see something new in her. It's so cool. Um, and then yeah, you know, we she came on as a first piece, and then it was filling in people around her who she had a good connection with. And yeah, a lot of prep work because we did not have time to rehearse, unfortunately. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

No, I you did an amazing job with filling the right pieces in for your story. And the story feels, to me at least, like a loss of innocence and then a reclaiming of something else in place of what might have been lost. At least that's what I'm getting from it. And it's so represented even in your palette choices for Chloe's living space and her choices when she's in LA. There's an innocence about that that contrasts so greatly with the actual LA scenes. And as dark as it gets, I feel like you still have a message of hope in this film. And so that's a long-winded way of me asking you: is there something that you'd like the audience to leave with, something that you'd like them to take away from this film? Because hope is what I took away from it, and a reclaiming of self, an integration of self, perhaps.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

That's really beautiful. Yeah, I think the reclaiming of yeah, self that's definitely at the core, and um and just like finding the courage to face your fears. Um the world is a scary place right now and always. And um I think just uh being able to root in the present moment and get get out of your head. Um, you know, this whole film she's stuck in the past and she's you know obsessing over the future, but you know, when she can finally root in the present, the fear isn't so scary. And so I think, you know, everything is terrifying. Making movies is terrifying, living your life is terrifying, but you can go into those and move through them, and that's a choice. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

I absolutely love that. That's a fantastic answer. And yeah, I there's there are some monologues that are are quite clearly driving to that point at the towards the end of the film, and obviously the climax of the film, without spoiling anything, go see this movie. It's worth your time to see this movie. Um, so I have a couple of questions that I typically ask people, and they're rapid fire, there's no right or wrong answer, and you can give multiple answers to these. Um, but do you have a favorite surreal film or dream logic film? Not even as an inspiration, but just as a film viewer.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Well, yeah, my favorite film is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And uh that's pretty dreamlogic.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yeah, it's so good. I could watch that again like a thousand times and find something new. It's so like alive, it's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

I love these because seeing what the filmmakers are interested in, it gives me just a little bit more context around the work that they're producing. So I have to ask, what is your favorite horror film of all time? And you can give multiple films here. This is a tough question.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

It's such a tough, there's so many good ones. Um, the movie that got me into filmmaking, uh, and it's just like a comfort movie to Scream. I just love Scream. It's the best. It's so fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Absolutely. The thing that's casting the glare back there on my wall is a signed ghost face action figure with most of the original cast. I I saw it in theaters and it just like it solidified my love of horror. It's such a classic. Good choice. So perfect. Um, so where can people find Somnium when they inevitably want to go and see it after watching this interview?

SPEAKER_02 8:56

Yeah, no, totally. Um, well, the film is out now on digital as of Tuesday. This is a very exciting week. This is our first weekend. So uh the film's on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, all the usual digital platforms. Um, so yeah, check it out. Exciting.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Excellent. And if folks want to follow up with you, where can they find you on social media?

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Um, I post mostly on Instagram uh at somniumthemovie.com. I post, you know, of course, about the film, but also just like the behind the scenes. I try to be really transparent and uh help people know that it's difficult, but it's possible. So I'll be posting a lot more now that the movie's out. I can finally like give it all because you know, when you're making the movie, you want to look like you have it all together and you know what you're doing. But now I'm like, yeah, no, I was just figuring it out.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

I totally relate to that. Yeah, I'll put that in the show notes and you can go ahead and follow at Somnium on Instagram. And is there anything that you're working on next that you're able to share or that you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_02 9:55

You know, I am trying to enjoy uh this week and the next week of not being so slammed with work, but I am really excited just to get back to the page, back to writing. Um, I have a couple just like seeds of ideas, but this movie was so big in scope that it was really hard to think about anything else for a lot of the time. Um, so it's fun to think about what's next and writing something a lot smaller next time, less locations, less characters, making my life a little easier.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Well, you've earned this break. This film is fantastic. I had a blast with it all the way through. I found it to be extremely, like I said, hopeful and heartfelt, honest, romantic, as well as terrifying. It is a horror film. Um, really commendable work here. I cannot wait to see what you do after this break. And thank you for your time today. Thank you for joining me on the Dread Alert Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Thank you for having me. This was so fun.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

As always, stay spooky, my friends.