Continuing a few of our film protection, we have now We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, a personality research concerning the web, isolation, stranger hazard, horror, role-playing communities, content material creators, and extra.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is a really introspective film that solely stars two characters, certainly one of whom you see very sporadically all through the film. Our protagonist is Casey, an remoted teenager who runs a small YouTube channel.
Casey joins a web-based ARG/Role-playing recreation referred to as World’s Fair, which proposes to show actual life right into a horror film for the participant. Anyone who joins the World’s Fair is inspired to maintain making movies concerning the modifications they undergo because the problem progresses.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2022)
Production: Dweck Productions, Flies Collective
Distributor: Utopia
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Release Date: April fifteenth, 2022
The World’s Fair roleplay feels actually low-cost at first; the announcement video makes use of corny horror footage and inventory sound results of individuals screaming, indicating it was put collectively in an amateurish means. It’s clear from the start that it is a fabricated factor, however the film performs quite a bit with our expectations.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair was initially going to be a relentless stream of in-universe YouTube movies of individuals documenting their modifications when becoming a member of the problem, however because the film progressed within the growth, we acquired Casey’s story to piece every thing collectively.
Remnants of this may be discovered within the film, as Casey is continually watching movies concerning the collaborative role-playing challenge, and thru these movies we see different folks reporting the modifications they underwent after becoming a member of the World’s Fair, with various levels of high quality.
One of the movies has a girl reporting that she sprouted black feathery wings, which clearly are only a prop; in one other video, we see a Marble Hornets-style internet sequence, the place somebody joins the World’s Fair and is dragged inside their laptop by ghostly palms.
Some of those segments are literally finished by real-life YouTubers, and whereas these segments differ in high quality quite a bit, it’s by certainly one of them that we get a few of the film’s solely precise horror content material.
One of the in-universe YouTube movies contains a man who joins the World’s Fair problem and finds himself dropping his thoughts. It has a extremely easy physique horror impact that turns into actually efficient as a result of his performing, and it’s in all probability the spotlight of this film’s horror-wise.
As a lot as We’re All Going to the World’s Fair offers with horror content material, it’s really not a horror film. It does have unnerving moments through the use of Casey’s descent into the role-playing recreation, however it’s by no means really scary.
Anna Cobb delivers a improbable efficiency as Casey; it’s awkward and actually true to how aspiring YouTubers make content material. It’s simply the correct quantity of corny and incompetent with out being annoying or (too) embarrassing to look at.
It’s clear that the World’s Fair is only a viral sensation, perhaps with a touch of stranger hazard since player-to-player communication is extremely inspired, however we’re by no means actually positive about the place Casey stands in all this.
My preliminary concept whereas watching the film was that Casey suffers from a number of character dysfunction and is having her psychological situation exacerbated by the web, which is fairly near what the film implies in its ending.
It does mess around with the angle that perhaps Casey may really be possessed and the World’s Fair is totally actual, however that angle by no means actually sticks, and I’m glad it doesn’t, as a result of it might be a horrible cop-out to have Casey actually be possessed by some web demon.
Eventually, Casey’s movies are found by JLB, a a lot older man who solely speaks in character for many of the film. He by no means reveals his face to Casey and engages her in a very critical method pertaining to the World’s Fair.
Casey finally begins producing 10-hour-long movies of her sleeping, the place in the midst of the evening she appears to get up possessed. She sends these movies to JLB, who stays in character and performs alongside, saying he’s nervous about Casey.
JLB is a extremely bizarre character on this film; we get glimpses of him all through all the factor, and he’s a a lot older man, sitting in what appears like a youngster’s bed room. His presence within the film really mimics an encounter the director had with a person in a web-based chatroom.
[…] I posted quite a bit on this website, and I finally developed a bizarre relationship with this older man who would touch upon a number of my tales. He sort of browbeated me right into a relationship over IM [instant message]. He was actually emotionally needy, and I used to be this thirteen-year-old child who knew I shouldn’t be speaking to this man. […]
As the film progresses, we hold getting extra movies from Casey and JLB’s enter on them. This finally results in a video the place Casey data herself going to a shed close to her home and uncovering her father’s gun, shortly placing it again in place.
The following movies have Casey stating that she plans on killing her father, saying that he merely has to go. Casey additionally talks quite a bit about disappearing as she wanders alone by city, making movies to submit on YouTube.
Eventually, a involved JLB breaks character and asks Casey if she is aware of that the World’s Fair is simply a web-based role-playing recreation. The expression in Casey’s face actually sells this second, as if a skinny glass pane that separated her from actuality simply shattered earlier than her very eyes.
Casey appears damage however tries to cover it by feigning indignance, claiming that she after all is aware of it’s a recreation and that she didn’t plan on doing something she spoke about, absolutely conscious that it was all fiction.
This is the final we see of Casey, as she fully cuts ties with JLB and doesn’t present up for the remainder of the film, which simply leaves us with a view of JLB, alone in a youngster’s room. He tries to contact Casey afterwards, however she by no means responds.
The film ends with a monologue by JLB, presumably a while after this occurred. He speaks about assembly Casey and the way she underwent a psychological well being scare that she has now recovered from. He speaks fondly about hugging her and claims that they sat down, had espresso, and mentioned their goodbyes to one another, planning to satisfy once more to speak some extra.
JLB’s presence on this film actually weirds me out; you by no means have any type of affirmation on what his motives actually are, however the best way he speaks about hugging Casey makes me doubt his intentions had been good.
We are by no means really proven if this meetup occurred, and the shot of JLB’s monologue is framed in such a means that it virtually appears like he’s making up this story to really feel higher concerning the conclusion of his interactions with Casey.
His presence within the film is basically predatory in nature, particularly with how he sits by hours and hours of movies the place Casey is sleeping. The teenager’s bed room he’s in may point out that he misplaced his son and now seeks to emotionally substitute him with one other teenager on-line, however it’s exhausting to know for positive.
Something to notice is that JLB’s profile on Skype is the Unwanted House Guest, a drawing depicting a terrifying residence invader on the foot of somebody’s mattress. The film is stuffed with these references to web horror, even together with the very bizarre soup.avi as one of many movies really useful to Casey.
I recognize the quantity of information that the director had about web tradition when making the film; this film may have solely been made by somebody who skilled this stuff, as portraying the web with such pinpoint accuracy is not any simple feat.
That mentioned, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair options some glacial pacing. It’s a tough film to take a seat by just because nothing occurs in a number of scenes. It’s a really deliberate film on the subject of transferring its plot ahead, however it borders on uneventful.
It does have some actually good photographs, and I particularly like how the digital camera all the time anchors down at any time when Casey is being recorded, often framing the viewer because the display or by having us have a look at Casey by the video recording playback on her laptop whereas she’s outdoors of body.
It is a troublesome promote to name this film horror, although, because it’s extra suspenseful than scary. It does characteristic some unnerving moments, however the one little bit of horror we do get is thru an in-universe YouTube video, which hardly counts.
The director has gone on to state that We’re All Going to the World’s Fair has each themes of transitioning and coming-of-age, and whereas the coming-of-age themes are simply current, I can’t spot something about transitioning regardless of how exhausting I attempt.
Maybe it’s as a result of I haven’t actually handled something much like this, however I’m but to see something identified that suggests Casey is definitely going by some type of gender id disaster/change, which leads me to assume that the director is perhaps projecting their very own experiences onto the film.
I favored We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, it’s a really practical portrayal of the web and the way remoted one could be regardless of linked to the entire world. It’s a extremely good character research of a complete technology that acquired misplaced of their little on-line worlds and perhaps acquired a bit too indifferent from actuality.
It’s a extremely good film that hurts itself by being marketed as a horror. It could be uneventful at occasions, however it’s an fascinating journey from starting to finish. Casey’s character undoubtedly resonated with me greater than I’d have favored, particularly since I grew up as a chronically on-line teen as nicely.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is on the market on Amazon Prime Video, to purchase or hire digitally. It can also be accessible bodily as a Blu-Ray on Amazon.
