GLR September-October 2024

The Horror of Repression

T RANS AND NONBINARY di rector Jane Schoenbrun’s new film, I Saw the TV Glow , is adis turbing and powerful meditation on queer identity and popular culture. On election night 1996, seventh-grade student Owen (Ian Foreman) goes to the local sub urban high school with his mother to vote.

participating in an online occult game that promises (or threatens) to change its play ers physically and mentally. I Saw the TV Glow expands on that film’s ideas, exam ining how popular culture can both help and hinder us in finding our true identities, but it also places the earlier film’s subtle themes about body dysmorphia into a more

P ETER M UISE

I SAW THE TV GLOW Directed by Jane Schoenbrun A24Films

explicitly transgender context. Schoenbrun has said in inter views that I Saw the TV Glow is about the “egg crack,” that mo ment when a person suddenly realizes that they are transgender, and Owen’s dilemma is the emotional core of the movie. Will he do what is necessary to escape the false world and become Isabel? Or is Maddy delusional, dangerously insane, and trying to kill him? I Saw the TV Glow incorporates many horror movie tropes, like creepy monsters and supernatural happenings, but it’s really about the horror of repression. It was one of the most unsettling and emotionally devastating films I’ve seen in a long time, and I found myself thinking about it for weeks afterwards. It’s a film that will resonate with anyone who has had to repress them selves, particularly members of the queer community. Included in the film are numerous references to 1990s pop

While his mother mingles with neighbors, Owen meets ninth grader Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who’s reading an episode guide to The Pink Opaque , a horror-themed TV show aimed at teens. Maddy explains that the show is about two teenage girls, Tara and Isabel, who met one summer at sleep away camp and became psychically linked. Now, they use their special powers each week to defeat an assortment of supernat ural foes. Although she says it’s “way too scary for most kids,” The Pink Opaque is Maddy’s favorite show. It airs on Saturday nights after Owen’s bedtime, but he lies to his parents about having a sleepover at a friend’s house so he can sneak over to Maddy’s to watch it. Owen grows into a quiet, shy high school student (Justice Smith), and he and Maddy bond over their shared love for The Pink Opaque . Owen’s strict parents still won’t let him watch the show because it’s on too late and because his father says the show is only “for girls,” so Maddy tapes it every week for Owen. Maddy, who’s lesbian, identifies strongly with The Pink Opaque ’s Tara, a rough and tough demo nologist. Owens’ sexual orientation is murkier. When asked if he likes boys or girls, he replies: “I think I like TV shows.” What is made clear, though, is that Owen identifies with The Pink Opaque ’s Isabel, a gentle psy chic who wears a magic dress. One night, Maddy puts a dress on Owen and they walk across the high school’s de serted football field together, but it’s unclear to the viewer if this actually happens, or is just Owen’s wishful dream. After five seasons, The Pink Opaque is canceled. Maddy tells Owen she’s leaving town (and her abusive stepfather) and invites him to join her. Afraid of making such a drastic change, he stays in town, but Maddy van ishes, leaving behind only a burning TV set. Several years later, Owen, now a listless adult working at a movie the ater, meets Maddy again late one night at the supermarket. She tells him something shocking. The Pink Opaque is real, and their suburban hometown is not—it’s actually a false world created by the show’s archvillain, Mr. Melancholy. Maddy claims that she is really the demonologist Tara, but had forgot ten due to Melancholy’s magic, and that Owen is Isabel. She tells Owen he can be reborn into his true identity as Isabel, but only if he’s willing to make a frightening sacrifice. Schoenbrun’s previous feature film, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), dealt with Casey, a lonely high school girl Peter Muise is author of Legends and Lore of the North Shore (2014) and Witches and Warlocks of Massachusetts (2021). September–October 2024

ular culture— The Adventures of Pete and Pete , Buffy the Vam pire Slayer , the Cocteau Twins—but Schoenbrun isn’t including these nods purely for their nostalgia value. Late in the film, one of the characters, no longer a teenager but now a middle-aged adult, watches episodes of The Pink Opaque on a streaming serv ice and wonders why they were obsessed with it. They realize the monster costumes were cheap and unconvincing, the leads were children who could barely act, and the show was terribly written. So how could it have been so important to them? Nos talgia can be fun, but TV shows, rock stars, and old movies don’t have any intrinsic power of their own, only what we give them. The Pink Opaque might help Owen realize he’s really Isabel, but only he can make the choice to actually become her. Justice Smith (as Owen) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Maddy) in I Saw the TV Glow.

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