I Saw the TV Glow

2024 saw a surge of politically acute horror movies, often with a feminist edge. The second movie from trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (after We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) didn’t get the hype that accrued to more visceral titles, but it taps into something deeply disquieting in ways that reverberate long after viewing.

Back in the 90s, Owen (Ian Foreman) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) are misfit teenagers who bond over a shared obsession with a weird TV show called The Pink Opaque, a supernatural teen series which looks a lot like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But Maddy gets more and more into it, insisting that the show is a portal to a hidden reality… When she vanishes shortly afterwards, Owen doesn’t know what to think. Cut to the future: his life has normalized in ways that are utterly predictable and which lead him back to the brink of breakdown…

I Saw the TV Glow is a major work—a frightening and complex exploration of childhood nostalgia, adult regret, and the ways our identity is shaped by pop culture. […] creepy […] electrifying, with uncommon human tenderness bumping right up against mutated, half-formed monstrousness.

David Sims, The Atlantic

Visceral and intensely moving, this film feels like something you’d stumble across on TV in the small hours and never forget. It might herald a new era for queer cinema.

Laura Vanning, Empire magazine

Schoenbrun blurs the lines between reality and fantasy with an intoxicating, Lynchian flair.

Jen Yamato, Washington Post

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