Saw I Saw the TV Glow, a film about a boy becoming obsessed with a young-adult TV show called The Pink Opaque. The film is a sort of psychodrama/horror film, about losing oneself, but not in the way you'd think.
The film is most focused on the harmful and helpful parts of fandom. On the one hand, the TV show gives this boy an escape from his difficult home life, friends, a sense of purpose and belonging, but the film also suggests that this all-consuming obsession may lead to increasingly insular beliefs and ideas about the world, ultimately even sucking the joy out of real life.
The plot of the film makes it seem like Beware the Slenderman, a story about a teenager who falls too deeply into a fictional world, but the fictional TV show within the film is clearly based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and other such supernatural-themed teen shows, which have large real-life followings. Not everyone who watched Buffy became unhealthily obsessed, many found role models that gave them a voice and a way of carrying themselves, a way to command respect when they felt least respected. Particularly for folks who didn't perfectly fit it: gay men and women, struggling with their place in the world.
The director of this film is queer and I cannot help feeling that their life journey is a strong inspiration of this film. It helps explain why the central TV show is given such a fair shake: yes this is an all-consuming fantasy, but sometimes you need to start with fantasy to get to reality. I don't want to be reductive though: the film is not only about gender expression, but about the central struggle of going along and fitting in with the world vs going your own direction, following a lesser-traveled path, even at the cost of your own safety, comfort, and even life.
The film is a slow creep. It feels more like a coming-of-age film than a horror film. There's no jump scares, but there is the creeping realization that something deeper and stranger is going on. The film plays with our expectations and also gives us lots of glorious, creepy imagery. Special mention: that scene where the main character's father pushes him under the shower. The main character screams, the soundtrack distorts, and the water is suddenly animated with ugly colored pencils before a smash cut to black. Splendid!
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