Movie · 2024 · Horror, Drama · 1h 40m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 5.8/10 (889.5K ratings)
There is still time.
Overview
In late-90s suburbia, a lonely teenager meets a girl at school who introduces him to a mysterious late-night T.V. show — a vision of a supernatural world pulsing beneath their own. As time goes on, however, questions begin to arise about why the show sometimes seems more real than their own lives. In the pale glow of the television, their view of reality begins to crack.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.8/10
IMDb: 5.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.52/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 86
TMDB: 6.1/10
Director
Jane Schoenbrun
Production
A24, Fruit Tree, Smudge Films, Hypnic Jerk
Cast
Justice Smith, Jack Haven, Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, Lindsey Jordan, Danielle Deadwyler, Fred Durst, Conner O'Malley, Emma Portner, Madaline Riley, Amber Benson, Albert Birney, Michael C. Maronna, Danny Tamberelli, Timothy Allan, Tyler Dean Flores, Elizabeth Scopel, Marlyn Bandiero, Haley Dahl, Raina Block
Where to watch
Kanopy
Curator Review
Verdict
A haunting, deeply personal horror-drama that turns late-90s nostalgia into a nightmare about identity, dissociation, and the fear of living an unlived life. It’s emotionally raw, formally inventive, and likely to hit hardest for viewers open to metaphor-heavy, mood-first storytelling.
Best for
viewers who like surreal, atmospheric horror
fans of coming-of-age stories with an existential edge
audiences interested in trans and queer allegory
people who respond to emotionally intense, symbolic cinema
viewers who appreciate 90s media nostalgia turned uncanny
Skip if
you want straightforward plot mechanics
you dislike ambiguity and dream logic
you prefer conventional scares over psychological dread
you’re not in the mood for a bleak, emotionally heavy film
Overview
I Saw the TV Glow is less interested in jump scares than in the ache of recognition. It uses the language of suburban teen horror, late-night television, and half-remembered obsession to build a story about identity that feels both intimate and cosmic. The result is a film that can seem quiet on the surface while steadily becoming more unsettling and emotionally devastating.
Worth noting
Jane Schoenbrun’s direction is precise about texture: the glow of the screen, the deadness of the suburbs, the way nostalgia can feel like a trap instead of comfort. The film’s surreal imagery and drifting structure won’t work for everyone, but that’s part of its power. It behaves like a memory you can’t quite trust, which makes its emotional logic feel stronger than any literal explanation.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the film’s compassion for the pain of self-erasure. It understands how frightening it can be to know, or suspect, who you are and still not move toward it. That gives the movie a rare kind of horror: not the fear of monsters, but the fear of a life spent standing just outside your own existence.
Top Letterboxd reviews
julie (5★) · 47634 likes
my name is Julie. i am a trans woman. and tonight is the first time i’ve said those words to anyone other than myself.
i first started questioning my gender identity around my sophomore year of high school. it had never crossed my mind when i was younger; i thought i was comfortable with my identity, until very gradually becoming overwhelmed with the feeling i wasn’t. looking back in hindsight, i think i had always felt uncomfortable in my own… more
Jamie Lauren Keiles · 32121 likes
horror movie about how if u don’t transition ur lips will eventually become soooo chapped
ghostreel (4★) · 31241 likes
Donnie Darko for they/thems
zoë rose bryant (4.5★) · 22666 likes
“time wasn’t right. it was moving too fast. i was 19, and then i was 20, and then i was 21. like chapters skipped over in a dvd. i told myself ‘this isn’t normal. this isn’t normal. this isn’t how life is supposed to feel.’”
was stunned speechless for a few seconds after finishing this. don’t know what else to say other than that it got under my skin in a way few films ever have, with its nightmarish sights… more
Paul (4.5★) · 20116 likes
A heartbreaking rejection of the typical ideas of a coming of age movie. Owen will not enter the wardrobe, he will not follow the white rabbit, he will not go to the Pink Opaque. He will collapse inside himself and decay.
Fantastic. My favorite movie of the year now.
2001 · Fantasy, Drama, Mystery · 1h 54m · R · Curator 8.7/10 (3.2M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A cult teen nightmare about alienation, time, and the uncanny pressure of adolescence, with a similarly haunted mood.
2014 · Thriller, Science Fiction · 1h 29m · NR · Curator 6.5/10 (578.7K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Philo, Night Flight Plus, Cineverse, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
A compact reality-fracture thriller that turns ordinary social space into a source of existential dread.