I Saw the TV Glow, the highly-anticipated new feature from A24 and writer/director Jane Schoenbrun (2022's fantastic We're All Going to the World's Fair), gets an eerie and exciting first trailer today ahead of its release later this year on May 3.
Since premiering at Sundance earlier this year, I Saw The TV Glow has been racking up rave reviews, praising story, cinematography, soundtrack and cast. Said cast includes Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Voyeurs), Brigette Lundy-Paine (Atypical), Ian Foreman (Let The Right One In), Helena Howard (Madeline's Madeline), Danielle Deadwyler (Till) and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst.
The creepypasta-esque plot of I Saw the TV Glow revolves around a nostalgic, 90s-style TV show named The Pink Opaque, with a full synopsis reading:
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.
Producing alongside genre titans A24 is Emma Stone and Dave McCary's production banner Fruit Tree, with Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Sarah Winshall.
It's been noted that I Saw the TV Glow has"a strong musical contingent" (evident in the trailer), with original music composed by singer-songwriter Alex G (who also worked on World's Fair), indie rock artist Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail), Yeule, Haley Dahl’s Sloppy Jane (featuring Phoebe Bridgers), King Woman and Caroline Polachek all on the musical roll call.
In an interview with Vulture, Schoenbrun shares their influences on the surreal horror, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twin Peaks, while also asserting that a key personal influence was their gender transition:
“When I started the screenplay for this, I had been on hormones for about a year and I was still very much in this early stage, which in my experience and I believe a lot of others, is a pretty intense and specific moment [...] You’re sort of dealing with a lot of the bad without much of the good yet, the sort of immediate aftermath of blowing up your entire sense of reality and existence.”
While you wait to enter the The Pink Opaque, check out the first trailer and new poster for I Saw the TV Glow below - and if you're lucky enough to be heading to SXSW this March, you can catch it there before anyone else.
