A TV series that captured your imagination to such an extent that you became obsessive about it. You watched it constantly, greedily absorbed its culture and as much information about it as you could and you had to buy everything that came out on the subject. If any of your friends felt the same, then great. If none of them did, too bad. The show was probably made with a slightly older audience in mind and you were blind to its shortcomings, anything from a skinflint budget to just generally being naff. We’ve all been there in our teens.
It’s the starting point for Jane Shoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow, her follow-up to 2021’s We’re All Going To The World’s Fair and which arrives at this year’s Sundance London on the back of enthusiastic receptions at Berlin and SXSW. Two young people – a teenage girl and a ten-year-old boy – are obsessed by a show called The Pink Opaque, a horror/fantasy with a different monster each week and a manipulative big bad called Mr Melancholy. Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) is already a fan and, when he sees a commercial for it, the young Owen (Ian Foreman) is immediately captivated. His parents won’t let him stay up to watch it, so he sneaks out to see it at Maddy’s, as well as devouring VHS tapes she leaves him as catch-ups. As Owen grows older (he’s played from age 13 onwards by Justice Smith, a shrewd piece of casting) obsession takes its toll. Maddy, on the other hand, disappears in what turns out to be a futile attempt to loosen the show’s grip on her.
It’s easy enough to take the film on a surface level, but there are so many layers that no two people will have the same reaction or interpretation. And it makes for a fascinating journey. The effect of what was a person’s something becoming their everything is frightening, but digging deeper there’s the pain and anxiety that goes with being an outsider in just about any way you can think of. While one particular reason is apparent, the isolation and alienation are more important than the cause. It’s where the horror comes from but it’s not of the body or white knuckle variety. The psychological and the mental comes to the fore and the fear grows from the very fact that it’s neither tangible nor visible.
When a film provokes so many reactions, not all of them are going to be positive. But I Saw The TV Glow seems to be bucking that trend. With critical and audience acclaim behind it, there can only be more to come. Prepare to be disturbed.
I Saw The TV Glow is out now. It was reviewed at Sundance London.
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