A24 revealed the official trailer for I Saw the TV Glow, the new horror film starring Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, and Helena Howard, with Fred Durst and Danielle Deadwyler.
In the film, two teenagers bond over their love of a television series, but after it is mysteriously canceled, their reality begins to blur.
Release Date
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair), I Saw the TV Glow, world premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, followed by the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, then in March will screen at South by Southwest film festival; and opens in theaters on May 3, 2024
Synopsis
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
Reviews
Giving the film 4 of 5 stars in their review, Guardian wrote, “What makes their film doubly remarkable is that it’s also about relatively recent nostalgia, another tiresome pitfall for many as small and big screens are consumed by pop culture references thrown at us without thought or care, offering recognition for recognition’s sake. I Saw the TV Glow, mostly set in the 90s and early 00s, is far sharper than that. Schoenbrun avoids the mistakes others have made by audaciously creating their own, utterly believable media landscape (original songs from Phoebe Bridgers and Caroline Polachek feel perfectly of the time without being pastiche-y) while realising that nostalgia can be a corrosive force.”
Deadline’s review drew parallels with the director’s trans identity and the story line, writing, “Given the director’s trans identity, it’s not hard to see I Saw The TV Glow as a metaphor for gender dysphoria, in Owen’s refusal to examine his true persona. But Schoenbrun also has a lot to say about the role of pop culture in adolescence and the dangers of holding onto it, as Owen will find when he revisits the show many years later. It can be trying at times, and Maddy’s many monologues (which the spellbinding Lundy-Paine delivers with impressive gusto) can be hard to follow. But Schoenbrun’s combative visual style produces some unforgettable images, like Owen’s father trying to pull him out of a possessed TV set as an electrical storm fills up the living room, or when Owen opens up his chest in a scene heavily reminiscent of David Cronenberg’s 1983 body horror Videodrome.”
Director Jane Schoenbrun seemed to agree, saying in a recent interview with Film Comment, “I know what I want to avoid in conceiving and representing images of transition or dysphoria, or the feelings associated with transness. What I want to avoid are external, physical manifestations of transness. In this film, I did cave in. There are some shots of, for example, the trans character putting on a dress for the first time. But, generally speaking, I feel like I’m not being true to my own experience when I lean on the external signifiers of womanhood versus manhood. When I am unpacking something that’s deeply personal to my experiences, an internal liminality or “wrongness”—that feels right.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for I Saw the TV Glow.