Scroll To Top
film

Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine are haunted friends in very queer I Saw the TV Glow

Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine are haunted friends in very queer I Saw the TV Glow


<p>Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine are haunted friends in very queer <em>I Saw the TV Glow</em></p>
A24

Justice Smith as Owen and Brigette Lundy-Paine as Maddy in I Saw the TV Glow

The new trailer for the anticipated horror flick from nonbinary director Jane Schoenbrun features a queer cast including Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Snail Mail's Lindsay Jordan, and Phoebe Bridgers.

Support The Advocate
LGBTQ+ stories are more important than ever. Join us in fighting for our future. Support our journalism.

A frightening TV show about teen girls fighting monsters seeps into the daily lives of friends Owen and Maddy, blurring the line between reality and the images they consume in the film festival hit I Saw the TV Glow from nonbinary filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun. Now the trailer, featuring queer actors Justice Smith (The Get Down, Genera+ion) as Owen and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Atypical, Bill and Ted Face the Music) as Maddy, has dropped.

Though the trailer from A24 is careful to not give much away, the official synopsis reads:

"Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack."

The TV show within the film, The Pink Opaque, stars Helena Howard (The Wilds, Shoplifters of the World ) and queer Snail Mail singer Lindsay Jordan as the monster-fighting teens who share a "psychic connection," according to The Hollywood Reporter.The film, which recently made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival, also stars Till's Danielle Deadwyler, Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst as Owen's father, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Amber Benson. Also appearing in the horror flick are musicians Phoebe Bridgers and Sloppy Jane's Haley Dahl. The soundtrack features an original track from Jordan and a collaboration between Bridgers and Dahl, according to THR.

A filmmaker on the rise, Schoenbrun's 2021 feature, We're All Going to the World's Fair, explored similar territory by blurring the lines between reality and fantasy in the gaming world.

"Sometimes The Pink Opaque feels more real than real life," Lundy-Paine's queer character Maddy eerily says in the trailer. That's when Smith's Owen begins to question his reality. Later he proclaims, "Maddy disappeared without a trace. All they found was her TV set burning in the backyard" as the camera cuts to the shell of a TV set in flames.

Watch the I Saw the TV Glow trailer below. The film is out in theaters on May 3.

I Saw The TV Glow | Official Trailer HD | A24SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/A24subscribe From writer/director Jane Schoenbrun and starring Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine ...

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff & Wayne Brady

From our Sponsors

Most Popular

Latest Stories

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.