Martin Scorsese Is A Big Fan Of This 2024 Horror Sleeper Hit

As streaming platforms and Hollywood studios continue to churn out a nauseating cavalcade of "content," much of which is stuffed with CGI hurriedly slapped together by some poor overworked VFX team, a film movement has quietly begun to emerge that is truly on the frontier of filmmaking. Led by directors such as Kyle Edward Ball ("Skinamarink"), Robbie Banfitch ("The Outwaters"), and Jane Schoenbrun ("We're All Going to the World's Fair") who all grew up in the internet age, this movement is producing thoughtful horror movie fare molded by online aesthetics and reckoning with a sort of dark nostalgia for '90s and early 2000s adolescence.

There was a reason why "Skinamarink" looked the way it did. Ball's 2023 horror was clearly influenced by weirdcore aesthetics — an online style that takes images from the early 2000s internet and superimposes cryptic phrases over the top to create a style at once familiar yet unsettling. In 2024, Schoenbrun continued the trend of infusing filmmaking with this online aesthetic in "I Saw the TV Glow" — a movie which, aside from being an allegory for the so-called "egg crack moment" experienced by trans youth, also tackles obsession with media, specifically a late '90s "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"-esque TV show called "The Pink Opaque."

The movie, from A24, is a haunting, mournful, yet simultaneously exhilarating experience that was one of the best under-the-radar horror movies of 2024. Thankfully, it seems not all of the Hollywood establishment overlooked this underrated effort, as the great Martin Scorsese has revealed he's a big fan of Schoenbrun's film

Martin Scorsese is a big fan of A24 horrors, having spoken highly of Ti West's "Pearl," after claiming that Ari Aster's "Beau is Afraid" will age like Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon." The director also revealed that he loved Aster's previous A24 effort "Hereditary," suggesting he has a real affinity for deeply unsettling slow-burn horror from boutique studios. Now, he's sung the praises of "I Saw the TV Glow." Scorsese told the Associated Press:

"There was one film I liked a great deal I saw two weeks ago called 'I Saw the TV Glow.' It really was emotionally and psychologically powerful and very moving. It builds on you, in a way. I didn't know who made it. It's this Jane Schoenbrun."

Schoenbrun responded to Scorcese's praise on Twitter/X, saying, "I JUST GOT A FEVER AND LAID DOWN ON THE GROUND AND STARTED PANTING." The director later added:

"I saw Marty speak about his cherished movie watching memories before a screening of 'BLACK NARCISSUS' at [The Metropolitan Museum of Art] earlier this year. Never have I ever felt more awed to be connected to a lineage, a tradition and a shared spiritual practice."

It might seem like nothing more than a neat little moment for Jane Schoenbrun to have their film acknowledged by a bonafide master such as Martin Scorsese, but it feels like more than that. For one thing, Scorsese is a real proponent of cinema as an art form, creating lists of must-see movies and making great efforts to preserve films that would otherwise be lost with his Film Foundation. So, when he pays attention to your movie, it means a lot more than it would even if another big-name director were to do the same.

But more importantly, Scorsese recognizing the value of "I Saw the TV Glow" feels important for this burgeoning artistic movement as a whole. While James Cameron is busy refining the sub-surface scattering on his "Avatar" aliens' skin, there's a whole generation of filmmakers who are truly pushing the boundaries of filmmaking with an original and subversive sensibility shaped by the internet and their experiences growing up in the '90s and early 2000s. The most crass manifestation of this sensibility is the way in which the TikTok generation is now fascinated by the early 2000s digital camera look. But there's something much deeper lurking beneath that particular trend, and it's at the heart of the kind of thoughtful filmmaking on display in films like "I Saw the TV Glow."

With Scorsese co-signing Jane Schoenbrun's film, it feels like a win for this new movement, and another step towards perhaps bringing more of this kind of thing into the mainstream to compete with the CGI demo reels and superhero blockbusters that otherwise dominate the landscape.