'I Saw the TV Glow' is a uniquely queer horror

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Council of Geeks
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[hallweenjack]

One of the first LGBTQ+ T-shirts that I ever saw that made an impact on me simply said, "Don't die wondering." That was decades ago, and still applies.

[lilithcal]

Having transitioned when I had just turned 50 it hurts today to see young women enjoying things I wish I could have experienced when I was their age. But still, I’m glad I was able to do it at all.

[limesparrow]

I Saw the TV Glow made me quit my job and hasn't stopped haunting me since I saw it. Thanks for articulating some of what I feel about it in this review. "There is still time" + "this thing feels more real than real life" resonate in my soul.

[jaydewillow]

The fact that Justice looks SOO much older than everyone else at the end is what really got to me. Before transitioning I had a recurring sense that I was "not long for this world" (those exact words were how I would describe it any time I would mention it to others) and it wasn't clear to me why until after I came out. After I finally saw a life worth living.

[UninspiredArtemis]

There's a scene early in the movie when Isabel is walking through the hallways of the school to pick up the tapes in the dark room, and the majority of the time the halls are dark and windowless, and Isabel is walking through hunched over, making herself smaller. But then we get to the bright white hallway with windows painted pink on one side and blue on the other, and she's walking upright and confident almost skipping through it, until she's met with the darkness again.

[NovemberIGSnow]

My take on the movie:




I originally took it as "transition or die." But I realized that's wrong. The world of the Pink Opaque is actively trying to kill Isabelle and Tara. It is a world of danger and isolation. These women never get to see each other except through their psychic connection. And yet, Tara chooses the Pink Opaque because there she is real. She will die whether she remains in this world or returns to the Pink Opaque. You will die regardless if you transition or not. The question is not about dying, it's about living. Are you going to choose to be alive?

[ChozoFS]

My personal interpretation of the ending is that it's the start of the grieving period of realizing you're trans. You feel horribly confused, unsure of who you are, and you go through that phase of loathing not transitioning earlier, and realizing the huge journey you'll have in front of you. Isabel's awkward apologetic walk seems to me like it takes place during that, where she's still working up the confidence to embrace herself and feels apologetic for her very existence and feeling the need to not upset everyone around her, pretending everything's okay, something I intensely related to as a trans person, myself.

[gabrielalastra]

I found out that I was trans 4 years ago, I haven’t come out to my family, I haven’t and can’t transition, and this movie moved me to my core, I felt deep fear, I felt sorrow for myself. I’m Isabelle, I wish I was Tara, but I’m Isabelle, bc it isn’t safe, bc is scary, I cried at the ending, pleading to see her outside, burying herself, and the final felt so cut dry for me, my she didn’t, it ended with her suffering in the nightmare, and I felt so empty, the screen went to black, I saw my reflection. It hurts to see my reflection, but in that moment it felt gut wrenching, it was a call to action, and I saw this beautiful movie just a month after I was pondering the idea of offing myself, bc of that exact reason, bc I’m living just like Isabelle, scared, out of my own body, I went from 12 to 21 in a blink of an eye, I wasn’t living, and I thought about just ending it all, and now, I see this movie, just a month after all that, god it felt like a weight put in me but at the same time off of me, ¿what am I doing? Why am I deciding to stay in this nightmare? I will change things, no right now, there’s things that won’t let me, but as soon as I arrange those things, I’m out, I’m being me, and if I get scared I will see the tv glow again

[Rmlohner]

It's now been revealed that the last few seconds of the ending was cut, where Isabelle runs out on her job upon seeing the show in her stomach, clearly ready to go through with the escape now that she knows it's all true. Probably the right choice to cut it and end on that more powerful image, but it certainly does push through the message "It's not too late."

[numbrevn]

SPOILERS: I know the common interpretation is that Owen/Isabel doesn't leave, but I feel like the last scene is open to interpretation. It's possible that Isabel (because her name is Isabel) left her shit job after that experience in the bathroom and made a beeline to the hole at the edge of the football field. There is still time.

[shima-mi-tattooer]

"don't watch it before going to bed, it's going to fuck up your night" can confirm, it fucked up my night

[FreezingInfernos]

When I was a teenage boy, I got into watching Sailor Moon. It was a thing I did in secret in the comfort of my basement, and one day I was caught watching it and lightly chastised for watching a little girl's show. 15 years later, my first act of rebellion against my birth gender was watching all of Sailor Moon, loving it, and letting its themes form part of the framework of my rapidly rebuilding internal landscape. I mention this anecdote to express how much Fred Durst saying of The Pink Opaque "Isn't that a show for girls?" harrowed me specifically to my very core. As the broader theme of Isabelle not getting out of the nightmare, despite there still being time, harrowed you.

This film is harrowing, haunting, and absolutely beautiful in equal measure, in a way that gender nonconforming innately understand and are deeply affected by. It would be untrue to say that all cisgender people "don't get it", just as it is to say that all gender nonconforming people call it a 5/5 masterpiece. I would, however, and it seems that you do as well. What a film. What a story. There is still time. Jesus.

[lauriebannion]

I saw this movie in the theater. And it very much left me messed up for the rest of the day. I almost was the same as Isobell as well. I kept hiding my feelings and my true self behind mountains of denial for so many years. I didn't even allow myself to admit it even in my own mind until I was 36. I remember wanting and praying to become a girl as far back as middle school, and feeling ashamed upon finding myself waking up in the morning as a boy. And this movie... this moving dragged back to the surface all of those times I allowed myself to want to be something different from what I was told I was, as well as all of the times I allowed shame to make me hide it all again and pretend it wasn't real.

To anyone reading this comment who might be experiencing something similar, to anybody reading this comment who is questioning or wondering about themselves, there really is still time. It is not too late. And you already know the answer. In your heart you already know, even if your mind is confused and full of doubt. You already know the answer. Trust your heart. There is still time. Help yourself to live, the real you. There is still time.

[KnittingTinker]

I may be Cisgender, but as I watched it I kept seeing the mask and the listlessness of the Owen/Isabella, I could feel, and the emotions were almost overwhelming. Living as a Bisexual Autist, I have not been able to come out to my wider family, my immediate family, yes, aunts/uncles, grandma, mother, ect, no. I remember going through High School the one throughline about how I was compared to the rest of the students was that I was different and just wanted to be "Normal". I think I can relate to Owen/Isabella on account of the listlessness and masking my Autism and other such of myself that leads into my own

Edit: I think the trans reading of it is the intended one, but I think it reads for most identities where you just can't be yourself from a young age. Be it being Trans, Queer, Autistic, or a variety of other things that people must mask historically to stay safe and feel safe

[jacke.]

Fred Durst, inventor of non-binary people: 'Hey ladies, hey fellas, and the people that don't give a f-'

Update: Oh I saw it again to night and it was even more heartbreaking than I remember

[thedragonsunicorn]

what you said about aging.... that you're no longer scared by it because you get to age as yourself is such an eye opening sentiment. i can't even describe to you what those words did to me vera. i don't want to sound dramatic but i genuinely think that you just shifted my worldview. i'm so glad i stopped to watch this video because i could've gone my whole life without hearing those words and i'm glad im hearing it now because wow i needed to hear that. thank you ❤️

[personperson]

Posting this before watching, but after watching it, my partner and me, both transwomen, just sat down, hugging eachother, sobing. It was, if not a pleasant, an Important experience for me, and i will forever love this film.

[TrinaryAdept]

When I was 18 My uncle took great pains to crush my dreams of being an artist. It killed my confidence and drive to create for ten years. I used to draw all the time. I was doodling in a dungeons and dragons game and one of my friends asked me to draw their character because they liked my art. Another friend wanted to collaborate on a comic with me. it never came to fruition but that push was enough to get me to go to school for art. I graduated with degrees in graphic design and illustration. I had some of my work shown in galleries, I had showings at conventions. then my mom got sick, and i came home to take care of her, and i can't work here. there's not enough space. I am back in the dark, and at time of writing I am still here. I can't create, I can't leave. Obligation and finances are holding me here. I can't get out. So that was the first level on which this movie spoke to me.

I've also recently realized that I never felt like a boy. I never felt like a girl, None of the gender roles ever made sense. I was performing what I thought masculinity was supposed to be because I didn't want the other men to know I was an alien amongst them, that i was broken, that I didn't belong. It was making me an angry and miserable and at times an aggressive person. I had someone explain to me what gender was and how it differed from biological sex or sexual preference, and it was mind-blowing for me. So many things made sense, and as i looked into it I learned that demi-guy existed, and for a time I tried that on, and eventually I grew to identify as Agender (Any/All). As Vera put it "Gender, I hardly know her" I still present mostly the same but deep inside I am fundamentally different. I am still exploring what that means for me. The few people I've expressed my feelings to have been accepting and so I haven't had that particular hurdle holding me back. But I'm 43, I learned all this at 41, I'm still sort of reeling from it. Still half trapped in the nightmare world by obligation and finances and just circumstances in general. The part about "There is still time" hit me like a sledge hammer on so many levels. and I am worried I am still walking right on over it.

I dunno if I am making sense and I feel exposed screaming into the void, even in a community as accepting as this, so i am going to leave it here. But this movie.... fuck... ( ; _ ; )

[TheSindustriesLtd]

this movie hit me in a way that I don't think any other movie ever has, and I'm not even a queer person. I know it hits a whole other way if you have that experience, but it still hit me extraordinarily hard. the idea of being too afraid to take a leap, too afraid to be who you truly are, and then winding up trapped in a life you didn't want... that resonated with me tons. I also felt a very deep connection with the main character, with his cadence and the way he carries himself, I am VERY similar in social situations. that was incredibly authentic. also something as simple as getting sucked into a tv show and then later having it turn out to be not quite as you remember. it all just pulled me into this vibe and never let me go. this movie felt like my soul laid bare.

[davidbjacobs]

Yes!!! This is my movie of the year.
Even as a cis guy, it just hit me so hard. The friends I saw it with weren't too crazy about it, and when the credits started, they went "okay" and then just looked over at me and saw me staring at the credits, frozen in shock. I wasn't begging the movie to go in a different direction: I was expecting it to. The ending pulled that rug out from under me and burned my soul.
Absolutely beautiful film. I don't think there's anything else quite like it. I could talk about it for hours.