Sundance 2024: Trans horror film I Saw the TV Glow transcends the genre

Editor's note: this review of Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, which recently premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, contains spoilers.

Jane Schoenbrun’s masterful follow-up to their already great debut film We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is destined to be one of the most buzzed-about horror films of the year.

I Saw the TV Glow follows two outcast teens who bond over their love of a Buffy-style young adult supernatural TV show called The Pink Opaque. As Owen (played by Ian Foreman and then Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) grow, their real lives become more fake, and the show seems to become more real.

The movie blurs the line between reality and media, which becomes even more blurred as Owen and Maddy become more and more dissatisfied with their lives. Soon, Maddy is willing to go all in on the fantasy, leaving her real world behind and asking Owen to come with her.

Many of the film’s most terrifying moments come in clips from The Pink Opaque that we watch along with Owen. The monsters-of-the-week are truly viscerally disgusting, and while the “big bad” of the show seems a little silly at first, when we see him in the show’s final episode, he is truly the kind of stuff that would traumatize any teen watching.

Many scenes had audiences gasping and squirming in their seats, and when the movie ended, I could feel myself let out a huge breath as my heart pounded.

For trans viewers, the story and horrors will be all too familiar. Schoenbrun is a master at portraying the confusion and disillusionment of being a young person, especially when you don’t feel at home in your body and life.

Many trans and queer people will be able to relate (maybe a little too much) with the idea of becoming obsessed with a queer-coded TV show or movie in your youth and getting so lost in it (while also dissociating through so much of your own real life) that your memories all have a constant hazy, fictional feeling.

While I loved World’s Fair, this movie is a huge step up, not just in budget (Schoenbrun even commissioned some of their favorite musicians to make a perfect, dream-like soundtrack for the film), but also creatively and in terms of bringing the horror.

Smith is great, playing everything from a teenager to a 50-year-old with skill. It’s a performance that will stick with audiences for a long time and will be darkly familiar with any trans person who spent a significant amount of time in the closet. Lundy-Paine is haunting and biting, perfect in the role of a disaffected youth. Together, they make each other even better.

Ultimately, the film grapples with the fact that even when we become aware of the horrors we are living in, it can be even scarier to take the actions needed to change our circumstances.

It’s a powerful and deeply resonating trans allegory, but also soars as a horror film, featuring brilliant performances from its two leads and some truly nightmare-inducing creature effects.

I Saw the TV Glow is playing at the Sundance Film Festival.