Screen glow. It's that specific, sickly blue light that defines modern isolation. You've seen it. You've lived it. Jane Schoenbrun’s 2021 film We Are All Going to the World's Fair captures that exact frequency of digital loneliness better than perhaps any other piece of media in the last decade. It isn't a jump-scare fest. It doesn't rely on ghosts in the machine. Instead, it’s a quiet, deeply unsettling look at what happens when a teenager decides to disappear into the internet.
Casey, played with a raw, vibrating vulnerability by Anna Cobb, lives in a nondescript attic bedroom. She's bored. She’s lonely. She’s looking for something, anything, to happen to her. So, she takes the "World's Fair Challenge." It’s an online creepypasta ritual—prick your finger, say the words, watch a video. People claim it changes you. They say your body starts to transform. They say you stop being human. Casey records herself, waiting for the change, and then things get weird. But not "monster under the bed" weird. It’s the kind of weird that makes you want to close your laptop and throw it out the window.
The Reality of the World's Fair Challenge
The internet loves a legend. From Slender Man to the Momo Challenge, the digital landscape is littered with these participatory horror stories. Schoenbrun, who identifies as non-binary, uses the framework of a horror movie to explore something much more personal: the dysphoria of existing in a body that feels wrong. We Are All Going to the World's Fair isn't actually about a cursed video. It’s about the masks we wear online and the way we use fiction to process our very real pain.
Think about the first time you felt truly "seen" by a stranger on the internet. It’s intoxicating. For Casey, the attention comes from a mysterious user named "JLB." He’s an older man who reaches out to her through a grainy avatar, claiming he’s worried about her. Is he a predator? A lonely soul? A mentor? The movie refuses to give you easy answers. Their relationship is the heart of the film, and it’s deeply uncomfortable to watch. It reflects that strange, parasocial bond we form with people we will never meet, built entirely on pixels and shared delusions.
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Digital Folklore and the Creepypasta Aesthetic
The movie looks like a YouTube rabbit hole because, in many ways, it is one. Schoenbrun spent years studying "Let's Play" videos and ASMR creators to get the texture right. The film uses a mix of traditional cinematography and low-res webcam footage. It feels authentic. It feels like something you’d find at 3:00 AM after clicking too many "recommended" links.
- Low-fi visuals: Grainy, underexposed shots that mimic a cheap 2010s webcam.
- ASMR influences: Long stretches of silence broken by the clicking of a mouse or the rustle of sheets.
- The "found footage" evolution: It’s not The Blair Witch Project; it’s a livestream of a breakdown.
Most horror movies about the internet fail because they don't understand how the internet actually works. They use fake-looking websites or over-the-top hacking sequences. We Are All Going to the World's Fair understands that the scariest part of the web is the comment section and the silence between uploads. It understands the "liminal spaces" of the internet—those corners of the web that feel abandoned yet inhabited.
Why the Ending Still Divides People
People hate the ending. Or they love it. There is very little middle ground. Without spoiling the specifics, the film shifts perspective in a way that feels like a gut punch. It forces you to confront the fact that you’ve been watching a performance. Was Casey ever in danger? Was the "challenge" real? Honestly, it doesn't matter. The film argues that the experience of the horror was real to Casey, and therefore, it was real.
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This is where the movie earns its status as a cult classic. It isn't interested in a tidy resolution where the demon is banished. It’s interested in the aftermath of a digital haunting. It’s about the "come down" after the adrenaline of a viral moment fades away. When Casey screams into her camera, she isn't screaming at a ghost. She’s screaming because she’s seventeen and the world is too big and her room is too small.
The Sound of Isolation
Alex G, the indie-folk icon, provides the score. It’s haunting. It’s melodic. It sounds like a memory that’s starting to rot. The music doesn't tell you how to feel; it just sits there, humming in the background like a server fan. There’s a scene where Casey dances to a pop song in her room, lit only by her computer screen. It’s one of the most hypnotic things put to film in years. It’s joyful and terrifying all at once. It captures that specific teenage feeling of being the only person alive in the world at two in the morning.
Critics at Sundance were polarized. Some called it a masterpiece of "trans horror," seeing it as a metaphor for the transition process and the search for identity in digital spaces. Others found it slow and frustrating. But that’s the point. The internet is slow and frustrating until it suddenly, violently, isn't.
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What You Should Do After Watching
If you've watched the film and found yourself staring at your own reflection in your phone screen, you're not alone. The movie is designed to linger. To really understand the context, you should look into the history of "args" (Alternate Reality Games). Games like Marble Hornets or Lonelygirl15 are the DNA of this film. They blurred the lines between fiction and reality, making the audience question what was "staged" and what was a cry for help.
Casey’s journey is a mirror. It shows us how we use the internet to "try on" different versions of ourselves. We post photos, we write statuses, we join challenges. We are all, in a sense, going to the world's fair every time we log on. We are all looking for a transformation.
Next Steps for the Interested Viewer:
- Watch the "Intro" to the World's Fair Challenge: Look for the specific fan-made videos that inspired the film's aesthetic. They exist in the real world on platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.
- Listen to the Alex G Soundtrack: Truly. Put it on while sitting in a dark room. It changes the way you perceive the movie's themes of isolation.
- Check out "I Saw the TV Glow": This is Jane Schoenbrun’s follow-up film. It expands on many of the same themes but with a bigger budget and even more surreal visuals. It’s the perfect double feature.
- Read about "The New Sincerity": Research this cultural movement to understand why movies are moving away from irony and toward this raw, uncomfortable honesty.
The film is currently available on various streaming platforms like Max or for rent on Amazon. It’s a low-budget wonder that proves you don't need a hundred million dollars to scare people. You just need a webcam and a really good understanding of why humans are so afraid of being alone with their own thoughts.
Don't go into this expecting a slasher. Go into it expecting a mirror. You might not like what you see, but you won't be able to look away. That is the power of We Are All Going to the World's Fair. It’s a digital ghost story for a generation that forgot how to turn the lights off.