Sonneillon (2023) [Transcript of Claire’s Scares, October 23rd, 2023]

Hello, my little creatures of the night! It's me, Claire. Welcome back to Claire’s Scares, where we dig deep in the cultural boneyard to unearth the very best horror movies, TV, books, and games. If you enjoy this video—and you know you will—please don’t forget to stab that “Like” button, and be sure to subscribe so you’ll never, ever miss an update.

Tonight, I'm going to be talking about Sonneillon, the controversial, supposedly cursed, movie which landed on streaming platforms last week and became an immediate cult hit.

[00:22 Claire is in her mid-twenties, with dark, bobbed hair and heavy eyeliner. She’s wearing a black and white striped top, and her studio shelves are lined with horror memorabilia—replica weapons, slasher-movie bobbleheads, special edition Blu-rays, and books. The studio is drenched in red and blue light, reminiscent of Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977).]

As always, this is going to be a fully spoiler-ific chat, so if you’ve not seen this incredible film yet, hit “Pause” right now, and go get it watched!

Still with me? Good.

Sonneillon is an aggressively lo-fi horror flick, recorded on a single home video camera for that authentic 1980s vibe.

As with many found footage movies, the promotion for Sonneillon deliberately blurred the lines between fact and fiction. No writer, director, or performers are credited, and the film opens with a title card stating that the footage was discovered in a collection of seized VHS tapes.

Since its release, the internet has been buzzing with reports of a potentially deadly curse attached to the film.

It all started with a viral Tweet by legendary video game producer Hideo Kojima—one of the first to see the movie in its current form.

[01:08 Video cuts to a screenshot of a Twitter post. There is a photo of a self-burned DVD disc, with the word “Sonneillon” scrawled in black marker. The post text says: “What did I just watch? You have to look out for Sonneillon—the most disturbing found-footage film I’ve EVER seen. The most unsettling thing since Cannibal Holocaust. Hardcore and highly recommended. One question though: Do we know for sure whether this is a work of fiction?”]

So that was what put Sonneillon on everybody’s radar, and ever since then, there have been a growing number of claims that viewers of the film became sick, injured, experienced panic attacks, or suffered serious hallucinations. There have also been rumours of at least two unexplained deaths linked to advance screenings in the U.S.

And that’s just the people who watch the film! I saw a blog post earlier this week about the making of Sonneillon, where the author claimed to have spoken to the film’s producers. They said that all but one of the people who appear in the movie were killed. And the survivor has apparently been institutionalised for years, suffering from PTSD and psychosis. So, the filmmakers are sticking pretty hard to the “it’s all true” line, which you have to admire.

The company behind the film is brand new. They call themselves Sonneillon PLC—an organisation created purely for the distribution of this one movie. It definitely adds to the air of mystery and mystique.

Of course, all of this has kicked the online hype machine into overdrive. It’s an absolute masterclass in viral marketing, if you ask me!

[02:18 A shadow moves across the shot, pausing for just a moment on Claire’s face. She doesn’t appear to notice and continues talking.]

Anyway, Sonneillon follows a brother and sister. The boy, Kurt, is in his early teens, while Katie, his sister, is a few years younger. It becomes clear that they have just moved house. The pair film themselves exploring the new place, moving from room to room, making jokes. At one point, Kurt hides and bursts out of a wardrobe, making his sister jump. They mess around; they argue. It’s all pretty normal and fairly uneventful.

I really love the naturalism of the performances. The action and dialogue seem genuinely spontaneous and improvised. But, the downside is that the actors end up talking over each other or mumbling, so it’s hard to make out a lot of the dialogue, and the film feels a bit ragged around the edges.

Also, we don’t ever get to see their parents. I don’t know if this was a deliberate decision, but it definitely feels a bit weird. Like, they must have a mum and dad, right? So, where are they? I’m just assuming it was a budget issue. Maybe they couldn’t afford another two actors. I dunno.

[03:06 Claire shrugs.]

Speaking of budget, you should know that this film only runs to sixty-three minutes. That’s a short runtime, even for an indie movie. Blair Witch was almost half an hour longer than this one. But what’s crazy about Sonneillon is that, somehow, it still manages to feel slow.

This movie drags!

The pacing is terrible; the plot is basically non-existent for more than half of the film. These kids bicker, unpack their stuff, complain about the house. Oh, and Kurt and Katie are irritating. They’re bratty, rude to each other. Not to be a bitch or anything, but there’s basically nobody to root for in this entire film.

Anyway, eventually, the kids explore the attic of the house. It’s dark and cobwebby and creepy. And that’s where they uncover a spooky old book. Super cliché, right?

We see Kurt opening this large dusty tome. There’s some shaky footage of the pages. It seems to be handwritten in dark ink, the paper looks like parchment or something. All of it just screams “haunted book—put me down!” But these kids don’t, of course.

[03:42 Claire laughs.]

Anyway, if the first half of this movie drags, all of that changes around the thirty-five-minute mark, after the kids discover that book.

There’s an abrupt cut, and we find them back in the attic. Kurt and Katie are wearing different clothes, Katie’s hair is now in braids, so I think it’s definitely meant to take place some time later.

A lot of the scene is hard to make out: It’s all lit by handheld torches, so the footage is dark and shaky. Oh, and there are suddenly two older teenage boys in the house with Kurt and Katie. I didn’t hear a name for either of these characters, and we’re not given any introduction or backstory to explain their presence. I guess they’re meant to be Kurt’s friends but . . . [Inaudible]

[04:17 Digital stuttering. Audio cuts in and out.]

[Inaudible]  . . . Katie is reluctant; it’s clear that she’s getting scared at this point. The boys are obviously doing it on purpose, deliberately trying to upset her.

Kurt starts to read from the pages of the spooky old book. He’s speaking a strange language. Someone on Twitter said it was “Enochian,” which is apparently a language made up by an old-timey guy who said he could speak to angels. That said, someone on Facebook said it was a nursery rhyme in Welsh, so who knows what’s really going on.

If any of you guys recognise the language he’s speaking, or if you can confirm that Enochian theory, please let me know in the comments below.

Anyway, as Kurt reads, there’s this really cool audio effect, like his voice splits in two or like another voice starts speaking in perfect time with his words. But this other voice is much deeper and darker and scarier.

By this time, Katie is getting properly upset, begging her brother to stop. The other boys are encouraging Kurt—of course—but soon, even they start getting a bit twitchy.

Then you get this amazing subtle visual effect on Kurt’s face. Just for a moment, when the camera and the torchlight line up, you see him, only his eyes are pure black, like just a void, and his mouth too—no teeth, no tongue, just empty blackness inside—and his cheeks look sunken and drawn out, and his face is all wrinkled and creased like he’s suddenly ninety years old or something.

But you only see it for a split second. Then, the camera swings back to him, and he looks like Kurt again, only now he starts to look panicked, like he wants to stop reading but can’t, maybe. And the deeper, darker sound is becoming louder and louder, drowning out his real voice.

[05:05 Digital stuttering. The image becomes distorted for less than a second. Freezing the video reveals an image of Claire screaming, her mouth gaping unnaturally wide, teeth filed to points. Her eyes are huge and bloodshot. The picture reverts quickly.]

It’s at this point that all hell breaks loose.

It’s hard to describe the remainder of the film. For the last twenty-five minutes or so, the camerawork is wildly skittery; the lighting is incredibly poor. But the amount of sheer horror they throw at us more than makes up for the slow start we’ve had to sit through.

There’s a combination of unhinged screaming, graphic violence, wild imagination, and ultra-realistic practical effects that makes this one of the most visceral and upsetting horror set pieces I’ve ever experienced.

You have to see it to understand what I mean, but here are some highlights from my notes.

Number one: That moment with the arm! Oh my gosh. If you’ve seen it, you know.

Basically, there’s a bit when something—it’s not clear what—grabs one of the older boys. He’s lifted a short distance into the air, in amongst the beams of the attic roof. He’s crying out and screaming, and then his limbs seem to spasm, moving into really painful, broken shapes, all of them at once.

He hangs there, twisted, whimpering and bleeding, for just a moment before he’s flung close to the camera, and we see the boy’s face, contorted in agony, alongside one of his arms. The forearm is bent at this horrific right angle with bone protruding through the flesh, blood pumping out from his severed arteries. But even though his hand is hanging off, his fingers are still moving somehow, twitching and spasming. And then black tendrils start to burst out from the wound, ripping the skin, like some sort of evil jellyfish is exploding out of him from the inside.

Through all of this, we hear Katie crying out, shrieking at the top of her lungs.

And who can blame her? It’s gristly, it’s gross, and it’s right up there with some of the best body horror moments we’ve ever seen—I’m thinking of classics like The Fly or The Thing or Terrifier, even anime stuff like Akira.

[06:01 Deep, rasping breaths can be heard clearly, alongside Claire’s voice. She seems completely unaware of it, but the sound is loud enough to distract from what she is saying, and it continues throughout the rest of the video.]

Another incredible moment is the glimpse we get of the . . . the . . . Well, what do we call it? The creature? The demon? I know some people online have been saying it’s meant to be a biblically accurate angel.

Whatever it is—this is one of the best and most original monster designs I’ve ever seen. The filmmakers learned lessons from the first Alien movie in that we only get to glimpse the thing for a few fragmented seconds as it thrashes around that small attic space causing utter carnage, and that makes it all the more terrifying.

We see snatches of what seems to be a wheel of limbs, white feathers bursting like blades, outward through the skin as we watch. And there’s this black, oily, oozing substance dripping from the pores or wounds where the feathers have emerged.

There are eyes, too. So many eyes. It seems like they’re all over the head of the creature but also running down its spine and across its wings.

There’s an insane shot where we see a hand—a massive hand—with what looks like a mouth in the palm. And it swings out, grabbing Kurt’s head, lifting him, as the jaws crunch down on his skull. The sound it makes is just . . . [Claire mimes throwing up.]

Honestly, this film is really not for the faint-hearted. There’s . . . [Inaudible]

[07:39 Sound cuts out as the studio lights seem to fail for approximately five seconds. Claire is plunged into darkness. The shape of another person, silhouetted, is clearly visible alongside Claire. The figure is large, towering over her. The lights return, and the shape disappears instantly.]

[Inaudible] . . . Oh, okay, we’re back! Sorry about that.

Anyway, it’s the film’s final seconds that have really created the massive buzz of notoriety around Sonneillon.

We see Katie—crying, terrified, apparently the sole survivor of this brutal massacre. She’s shaking, her voice quivering, and she’s reading—reading more strange words from that big old spooky book—until she stops, looks straight down the lens, and says, “It’s your problem now.”

[07:53 Claire shivers.]

Genuine chills. It’s quite a moment, breaking the fourth wall like that. You can see how . . . how . . .

[07:59 Claire stops. Slowly, her eyes roll until only white shows. She breathes in ragged gasps, head tilting backwards, tendons taut on her neck. A deep voice booms off-camera, words unclear. Claire’s head bends further, twisting impossibly far, until it slumps back with a sudden, sickening crunch of bone. Something wormlike writhes beneath the pale skin of her throat. The deep, rasping breath continues.]

[08:28 Video ends.]

Editor’s note: Sonneillon was removed from all major streaming services just days after this video was posted to Claire’s Scares. Numerous incidents were allegedly connected to the now-notorious film. It is believed that copies of the movie are still available on file sharing and torrent services. We urge readers not to seek it out.