31 Days of Spooky Movies: I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

So today was kind of a rough day for me... but I ended up spending it writing all of the blogs for the horror movies I've seen so far... and I took a break to watch this movie and I'm not exactly sure I would consider this a horror movie... but it is one of the only horror movies on HBO Max I haven't seen yet- and I'm including season 3 of And Just Like that in this.

Anyway- this is a fun movie that was a little bit weird for me but I still enjoyed it overall and it is probably the most emotional movie I've seen in a long time and I think just about anyone can get something out of this movie. It takes place in the 90s and these two kids that are both kind of outcasts with hard home lives bond over this tv show called The Pink Opaque which is sort of like a Buffy The Vampire Slayer for Young Adults or a scarier version of Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark- but also with mythology episodes.

The director of this movie- Jane Schoenbrun- is a trans woman and you can tell this movie must have been really emotional to her. I know this movie was seen very positive in the trans community and has helped a lot of people. I'm a cis woman and I connected to this movie a lot. I mentioned that this was a hard day for me... but my life today is completely different than it was yesterday and it will never be the same. It's still ordinary and today was an ordinary day... but some events can change you, the people you meet can change you and becoming who you were really meant to be can change you. This movie shows all of those things.

It also has some very heartbreaking and real quotes about the passage of time and longing for things. There's a point at the end of the movie where Justice Smith's character starts watching The Pink Opaque again and it's completely different than when he first started watching it. It's more like a goosebumps kids show- and it's totally different than what he remembers as a kid. There was something really heartbreaking to me about that and it was just really good.

I also don't really know why- maybe just because the movie is about a tv show- but it reminded me of when tv shows that you watch from the very first episode end. Like with Modern Family- that started when I was just starting my senior year of high school and I remember watching the first episode- and it was on while I was in college and afterward and it ended at the beginning of the Covid -19 pandemic... so much happened in those 11 years that that show was on and it felt like it had just started when it was on the last episode of its 11th season. The way this movie shows how time passes just reminds me of that and it's beautiful and sad but also kind of happy. I'm not sure that's what the director intended- but that's immediately how I felt.

This movie is available for streaming on HBO Max and available own on dvd, blu ray digital and 4K. It is rated PG-13 and directed by Jane Schoenbrun. It also has a soundtrack available on vinyl which I only mention because I want that soundtrack.

Bye!

-Shannon