Aqueer-leaning sci-fi/horror, I Saw The TV Glow is a game-changer in American independent cinema. An instant cult movie, it borrows from an array of influences, ranging from David Cronenberg’s Videodrome to TV perennial Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to create something utterly unique around the theme of otherness.

The latest film by Jane Schoenbrun follows on from 2021’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, which could be seen as a coming-of-age psychological horror that deals with gender identity. The story goes that Schoenbrun, who goes by they/them pronouns, discovered they were trans during a mushroom trip whilst writing the script for World’s Fair..

The second part of Schoenbrun’s intended ‘Screen’ trilogy, I Saw The TV Glow continues exploring similar issues in a refined and rarefied way. It also gives a killer role to Justice Smith who is best known – to dinosaur fans anyway – as Franklin Webb, the scream-king seen in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

I Saw The TV Glow begins in the mid-1990s when isolated youngster Owen (Ian Foreman) meets the older Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) in high school. She’s reading an episode guide to late night TV show The Pink Opaque (a nod, incidentally, to the 1986 compilation album by the Cocteau Twins). When she invites him over to watch an episode, he’s immediately taken by this sci-fi about teens Isabel and Tara, who fight against evil adversary Mr. Melancholy.

As their friendship develops, Maddy starts taping episodes of the show for Owen to watch – on account of his father Frank (Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst) refusing to let him watch a show he considers for girls. Maddy admits she’s a lesbian to Owen, who is also uncertain about his own sexuality, but things get increasingly strange from here. Maddy disappears and The Pink Opaque is mysteriously cancelled.