I Saw the TV Glow: 'deeply haunting' mystery drama deserves 'cult status'

Jane Schoenbrun's 'suffocating' feature follows two misfit teens united by their love of a supernatural TV show

Ian Foreman in I Saw the TV Glow
I Saw the TV Glow is a 'claustrophobic, unwholesome' triumph
(Image credit: A24 / Spencer Pazer)

To call this a horror film "seems reductive", said Wendy Ide in The Observer. "With its shapeshifting disquiet, 'I Saw the TV Glow' is too languidly weird, too unmoored from genre conventions to be neatly categorised. But there's not a frame in Jane Schoenbrun's suffocating second feature that isn't drenched in dread and unease."

Set in an American suburb in the 1990s, the story follows two misfit teens, Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who are united in their love for a hokey, supernatural TV series called "The Pink Opaque". On every episode, two girlfriends use their telepathic powers to fight the forces of evil. Two years go by, during which Maddy and Owen's obsession with the show only grows – then Maddy, who is being abused by her stepfather, mysteriously vanishes. "The film has a trans/queer subtext, but it will speak to anyone who has ever felt uncomfortable in their own skin."

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