Another Sixteen Screams For Halloween: Day 4 (We're All Going To The World's Fair)

This is... quite the film to talk about. It's one of the ones that got recommended to me, picked in this case by my pal Sean. As such, I went into it knowing not a thing about what it had to offer. That sense permeated the rest of the film, as it's a mercurial thing that refused to exactly define itself for me. Not only did it have some sense of ambiguity in its horror, but it was subversive enough that it managed to pivot to being about something else entirely. Or maybe I was just slow on the uptake and the movie was actually about this all along. Either way, I went along with the movie instead of being bitter and resistant that it wasn't giving me what I wanted (What? No, this has nothing to do with Halloween Ends trending on social media and the same closed-minded whinging about that film coming back like a vengeful ghost), I let my perceptions change and really sit with what I felt the film was trying to say.

This film never stops being a horror movie, but the focus of the horror is what swerves and changes. What it teases and tantalizes you with is the promise of transformation and change, the titular World's Fair being a blend of creepypasta, ARG, and viral trend. Say a spooky thing, prick your finger, and watch the spooky video to begin the change, where the deepest darkest parts of your soul will manifest and turn you into something new and monstrous. The glimpses we get into this online trend are unsettling and terrifying. People turning into stuffed animals, becoming plasticine beings and loving the change, or our protagonist Casey slowly slipping into a world of madness and doing terrible things against her will as the change slowly takes over more and more. It's being trapped in an algorithmic hell as we keep seeing Youtube videos about the World's Fair, watching the power of this thing take hold more and more.

And it's all made-up bullshit. It's online performativity, blurring the line between fantasy and reality as the Internet best does. You know that, I know that. We all have a "true" self and an "online" self. We all live with that duality inside us in this terminally online age, and this is the true horror lurking at the heart of the film. It is not a supernatural force taking you over and making you rip your beloved stuffie apart as you become monstrous. It's being so online, so anxious and neurodivergent, that you struggle to make a real human connection. This is the path of the film's other protagonist, JLB. His concern over Casey's spiral is genuine, but he's taken things too literally and it destroys their acquaintance for a good while. The final story he tells of them reconnecting in person, finally bridging that online gap and making a true human connection... is it real, or is it just as performative as the World's Fair game? Hell, is the World's Fair game performative or real? I don't know. What I do know is that this film expertly dances from those two extremes, from performative horror in the online world to the very real horror of social anxiety offline. I admire it for that, and I'm glad I spent my time with it.

If nothing else, its luxuriously slow pace and very long takes have primed me for a later film on the list... but that won't be coming right away.