2024 ‧ Horror/Drama ‧ 100m
I Saw the TV Glow uses fandom, otherness, and coming-of-age tropes to horrifying affect. Jane Schoenbrun’s follow up to We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is not as internet focused, but still has a creepypasta feel.
On Election Day 1996, while his mother votes at the local high school, 7th grade loner Owen (Justice Smith) finds 9th grader Maddie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) reading an episode guide for The Pink Opaque. They strike up a friendship and decide to meet up to watch the show together the next Saturday. The show is a Nickelodeon-esque horror fantasy about teens who fight evil. The two bond over the show for a couple of years until one day Maddie disappears. The years go by and Owen lives his life, working at movie theater. Suddenly Maddie returns, and she has something to tell him about the show they loved growing up.
Memory and belonging are constant, however toxic fandom and nostalgia are major themes. Schoenbrun is interested in showing how fandom can enmesh into one’s identity. The pluses and minuses of loners finding each other weighed too. Both Maddie and Owen are easily established as being “weird kids.” They share somethings in common, which Schoenbrun shows how that can be a great thing, but not always. Anyone who feels marginalized or othered will likely relate to the two. The performances are somehow both understated and intense, establishing the mindsets of Owen and Maddie. Even though much of the characters’ logic does not hold up to scrutiny, it’s easy to stay invested.
There is a surreal tone that is quite affecting, some calling it Lynchian. However, this term is not the often derisive meaning “so weird it’s hard to understand.” Schoenbrun, like Lynch, uses surrealism as a way to convey feeling and emotion, not to necessarily move a logical plot. Again, like Lynch, you may find yourself absolutely terrified, but you can’t completely figure out why. It gets under the viewers skin and requires one to process it. Those looking for traditional horror scares will likely be disappointed, but existential foreboding is the ambient hum of Schoenbrun’s film. There’s been some comparison with the creepypasta Candle Cove, and both stories share the “haunted by a childhood tv show” trope, but that is about it. I Saw the TV Glow probably shares more DNA with Slender Man. Schoebrun’s first feature was a docu-collage film about that internet phenomenon and one can see similarities with this film.
Though anyone could get something out of the film, millennials will likely resonate with the popular culture examined. The Pink Opaque scenes certainly have Buffy similarities, but there’s also some Are You Afraid of the Dark? elements as well as The Adventures of Pete and Pete. In fact, the actors who portray the titular Petes cameo. So does Buffy actress Amber Benson. The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight Tonight” has an influence as well, Melies notwithstanding. All these influences almost make the film a sort of 90’s Nickelodeon version of Videodrome. It is PG13, so it doesn’t quite go to Cronenberg depths. And that rating may explain who this will affect more. That is not to say that I Saw the TV Glow is “kiddie horror” like the The Pink Opaque is portraying. More that younger audiences are frightened by different, but no less mature elements.
Schoenbrun makes a fascinating and surprisingly adult film that is haunting and unusual. It will be very interesting to see what they do next.
Grade: B
~Andrew