Is This Life Real or a Dream?

Bruce Von Stiers

When a person dreams, do those dreams have anything to do with actual events or people in their lives? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. But what if a person wakes from a coma and recounts some bizarre dreams that have nothing to do with their real life? That is more or less the beginning of a thriller film titled The Womb.

The film begins with this statement, “Beware the prison of the mind. An intricate labyrinth guarded by Monsters of the Id, with claws poised to shred any attempts at unlocking the memories that could set us free.”

There are two storylines in the film. One is of an adult woman who is trying to survive in some kind of apocalyptic setting. The other is of a young girl who is just coming out of a coma that was induced by a traumatic event.

The woman only leaves her house with goggles on and a mask over her nose and mouth. She is shown with a wheelbarrow that has a body in it, going to a field. She buries the body. All around the woman is waste and debris as it appears something devastating has happened.

Then the film turns to a young girl. She is running through what looks to be an abandoned carnival, a dystopian setting, dark and gloomy. The girl and her dog seem to be looking for something, maybe a place to hide.

Sammi is a young girl who's just woken up from a coma. Her father is relieved but still can't understand why Sammi slipped into the coma in the first place. The father, Ben, has been working with Dr. Stevens to figure out what happened. She suggests Ben rid everything in his house that would remind Sammi of that traumatic event. Just in case Sammi saw something that would cause her to possibly slip back into a coma. This plays into the plot later in the film.

Sammi loves to draw, but the pictures she does after waking up seem dark and gloomy. A Ferris Wheel and other items that Sammi apparently has never been around are elements in those dark drawings.

The film moves in three distinct directions. We see the girl at the carnival who is trying to leave, but a gate is in her way. There is the woman, who ends up being the adult Sammi, who is trying to survive this horrible thing that is causing death and destruction. And there is the post coma Sammi, who doesn't seem quite right. A hypothesis from Dr. Stevens is where the title of the film comes in. Each of these directions end up converging, so by the end you get a fairly full picture of each story element and why it was there.

Cami Varela played the adult Sammi. She previously starred as a deaf assassin in the film, Steele Wool. Hannah Zamora played young Sammi. She appeared in a film reviewed a while back, Angels Fallen: Warriors of Peace.

Jamison Jones played Ben, Sammi's father. He has over seventy screen credits, including appearing in seventeen episodes of The Young and the Restless. Marieh Delfino played Dr. Stevens. She starred in Zombae and appeared in Steele Wool.

Taylor Murphy-Sinclair played Jade, a woman who Sammi begrudgingly lets into her home. She co-starred in Wineville and has appeared in shows such as Kenan and Lucifer.

Anzu Lawson played Sophia, a woman who invades Sammi's house and has a plan to destroy the thing that is causing the death and destruction. In addition to co-starring in thrillers such as Killing The Competition, she is a singer, screenwriter and comedian. Chase Coleman played Cyrus, Sophia's cohort. He has appeared in multiple episodes of The Young and the Restless along with co-starring in the thriller, Boogey-Man.

Other actors appearing in the film were Myron McClure, Martin Harris, Philip Lester, Paul Sloan, Josh Murphy and Spike Daniels.

The director was Frank A. Cappello, who also wrote the screenplay. He was also the cinematographer and editor for the film. Among the films he previously directed are American Yakuza, No Way Back, He Was A Quiet Man and Steele Wool.

What the plot of The Womb boils down to is how people process grief. Where many express their grief outwardly, some internalize it. Sometimes this internalizing leads to dreams and nightmares that are far removed from any reality or a person's life experiences.

The acting was well done, especially Cami Varela and Hannah Zamora. Hannah Zamora as young Sammi and Cami Varela as the adult Sammi are portrayed with both innocence and untethered emotions.

And the special effects were very interesting.

I guess the main takeaway from the film would be that sometimes people don't handle grief well, and that can lead to interesting circumstances.

The Womb is now available on Amazon Prime. Video On Demand, Google Play and other platforms.

You can learn more about The Womb at https://thewombmovie.com/

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© 2025 Bruce E Von Stiers