Jane Schoenbruns I saw the TV light up is a cross-genre film that turns drama into horror.
Owen (Ian Foreman and later Justice Smith) is an outcast at school who befriends fellow outcast Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) through a children’s television series called “The Pink Opaque.” They are both obsessed until the series is suddenly canceled and Owen begins to feel a sense of distorted reality.
Intentionally ambiguous, I saw the TV light up can be viewed in a number of ways. One is as a film about the difficulties faced by outsiders and the misery they feel as adults when they suppress themselves. Another is as a film about the intensity experienced when sharing obsessions with teenage co-conspirators. Yet another is as a film about mundanity in suburbia from the perspective of a supernatural children’s TV character. All of these films are presented in the tone of Lynchian horror, so no matter how you look at it, the experience is intense.
It’s difficult to write about the film without giving away the plot development, but it’s safe to say that Maddy is making a claim about Owen’s experience of reality that may or may not be literally true, and demanding that he join her in what could be an incredibly unwise endeavor. If you think Maddy is just plain crazy, then the film can be construed as a drama. If you view it as literally true, then the film presents a supernatural horror. Is Owen’s reaction to Maddy’s revelation rational or a missed opportunity? The questions you’ll have at the end of the film are the whole point.
Still, it’s hard to predict whether you’ll actually like the movie or not. I saw the TV light up will prove to be a film that will divide viewers in terms of audience reaction, with little chance of a middle ground. Either you will find it a dull, leaden lump of ice-cold misery, or, if you can accept its ideas, a fascinating exercise in sound and technique. Like the film’s included television show (named after a Cocteau Twins compilation, and something like a cheesier Buffy the Vampire Slayer), it will either work its magic or just seem like unbearably pretentious young adult fiction.
