It’s not often that an experimental horror movie generates buzz outside of horror geekdom, especially one made by a transgender writer-director-editor, with a newcomer who’s not yet 20 to star.
But critics have brought Jane Schoenbrun’s new indie, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” to the fore since its debut at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film is currently in theaters and is scheduled for a digital release on April 22.
Primarily shot in Ellenville, NY, in Ulster County, the film stars Anna Cobb as Casey, a teenager who lives with her father in a rural house, where she eats creepypasta videos (or web-fear) in her attic bedroom and clumsily tries to connect with other lovers of the macabre, including an anonymous older man going through JLB (Michael J. Rogers). The film’s title is taken from the opening scene, when Casey shoots a video announcing that she is entering the World’s Fair Challenge, an online role-playing horror game that drives people crazy when the videos Casey watches go crazy.
A coming-of-age story about the dangers and benefits of virtual identity formation, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” joins other recent low-budget scary movies (“The Strings,” “Rot”) that distort the tone and shape. Cobb, 19, makes her feature film debut with a disturbing performance based on a taciturn electricity, such as a 1960s outsider fusion of Billie Eilish and Sandy Dennis. Schoenbrun, 35, used found footage techniques, webcam confessions and digital noise to “dive into a queer experience,” they said.
“I didn’t set out to make a movie that did what 98 percent of horror movies wanted to do, which was to create unrest,” they said.
The film received a lot of attention from festivals, and Schoenbrun and Cobb have already signed up for high-profile projects. Schoenbrun’s next film, the horror-themed “I Saw the TV Glow”, is being made for A24. And Cobb stars opposite Timothée Chalamet in Luca Guadagnino’s new drama ‘Bones and All’.
About being transgender in America
Schoenbrun, who is from Westchester County, and Cobb, who grew up in Plano, Texas, recently sat together in New York to talk about making “World’s Fair” and seeking comfort from monsters. The interview has been edited and shortened.
What inspired this movie?
JANE SHOENBRUN Back in 2014, a friend told me about the Slender Man stabbing, the case where these mentally ill kids essentially convinced each other that this online bogeyman was real and that they had to do some horrible things in the real world. as a tribute to him.
How did that resonate with you?
SHOE BRUN Ten years earlier, I was a kid who grew up later than anyone in the house, reading and writing scary things and looking for a way to express myself as a young, strange, creatively frustrated person who didn’t have many opportunities to in a way that would be seen in a positive light. As a trans person who was in a very long process of coping with my transness, the idea of the internet as a space to explore through fiction before I was ready to explore that in reality felt very moving.
Anna, what attracted you to the part?
ANNA COBB I was lucky enough that Jane found me interesting enough to watch. But I also think that often when people portray teenagers, they’re either incredibly flamboyant or comfortable in their own skin. As a person from that era, I know you’re never really comfortable in your own skin, and Casey felt very relatable.
Jane, how much of your transgender identity is part of the movie?
SHOE BRUN Oh, it’s all over. The first time Casey and JLB talk, he asks Casey about the transformation she claims to undergo as part of this role-playing game. She says it makes her bad, and she’s deeply ashamed of what it turns her into. Clearly there is a desire for change, for transformation, to assert one’s own identity as a teenager in a way that the people in her life would probably consider horrific. That’s something very personal to me, and that’s a very trans thing.
How’s that?
SHOE BRUN When I started writing this film, I didn’t know I was trans. By the time I finished writing the film, I knew I was trans. I came to Anna after we finished production in February 2020, just before Covid.
That’s a long way to self-discovery.
SHOE BRUN I might have been looking forward to half the people on set, but I hadn’t started my physical transition yet. By the time the movie premiered, I had been on hormones and transitioning in public for six months. It is impossible to untangle the two. It’s a film about this desire to express something that, when I felt it as a teenager, I had no name for it.
What were some of the techniques you used to shoot?
SHOE BRUN Photo Booth, the application on the Mac with which you can film yourself. I think it is beautiful. We shot a few with a Canon Vixia, a true consumer-grade camera. We tried to find the kind of camera that Casey would actually have. Anna filmed some of those things herself.
COBB I forgot to press the record button a few times.
How much of the film is improvised?
COBB I’d say about a quarter.
Anna, were you shocked by everything you saw?
COBB Jane showed me some scary things before we started. So I guess I’ve gotten used to seeing scary things.
Do you think this is a horror movie?
SHOE BRUN New. I consider it a movie about someone who likes horror, and I like horror.
Anna, are you a horror fan?
COBB I feel uncomfortable too easily when I watch horror movies. I’m trying to make my life a little lighter these days. I listen to love songs. I like to drink smoothies.
