We're All Going to the World's Fair
2022 · Directed by Jane Schoenbrun
Original language: English
- horror
- drama
The story
Reality and fantasy begin to blur when a teenager, alone in her attic bedroom, immerses herself in a role-playing horror game online.
What it’s like
Lit almost entirely by the cold blue-white of a laptop screen, the film keeps its camera close and still in a cramped attic bedroom, with long static takes that let the silence of a winter house settle around the frame. Its palette is washed-out and grey, with flat daylight through a small window and warm amber flickers only where the webcam glow touches a face. The sound is sparse: the hum of a fan, distant traffic, a few eerie synth tones from the online game, and long stretches of nothing at all. The vibe is quiet, uneasy loneliness, the chill of a snowed-in weekend where the internet feels like the only open door. Its pacing is patient and deliberately slow, building an unsettling intimacy through confession-style, screen-mediated exchanges. The emotional register is melancholy and hushed, with horror that works through dread and ambiguity rather than gore; the one intense scene is disturbing rather than bloody. It follows a young person slowly reaching for connection and identity through a stranger's attention, a relationship that turns uncomfortable. Best for patient viewers who want an atmospheric, unsettling coming-of-age film about isolation and the internet.
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