When Casey (Anna Cobb) decides to jump into the online horror game World’s Fair Challenge, she seems to do so without a care for the uncertain consequences of such a game. Casey almost seems to make the decision as a lark, as if the boredom of her life means that the results of the game can’t make things any worse for her. As Casey makes her first video documenting her World’s Fair Challenge, she pricks her finger multiple times until it bleeds, watches a video, then concludes her video with the promises of more videos recording what happens to her. When she concludes her first video, she sits alone in the dark, tears down her face aglow from the computer screen. Who knows what could happen to Casey in writer/director Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair? For Casey in the moment, what could happen doesn’t matter, but rather, the joy of being part of a community—albeit an online one—makes the potential horrific possibilities worth it.
It’s that malaise and uncertainty that makes We’re All Going to the World’s Fair an effective and unsettling modern horror tale, a creepypasta story come to life. In the opening credits, Schoenbrun shows the mundanity of the suburban area that Casey lives in, to the point that we understand why Casey would seek escape into making her own life a horror story. The only time Casey seems excited is when she shares an experience during her sleep that she says felt like she was in Paranormal Activity. Even when Casey watches videos of other people who have been “transformed” by the World’s Fair Challenge, with titles like “I can’t feel my body!” or “I am turning to plastic,” she seems unfazed by what could potentially happen to her. It seems like for Casey, any change is better than the reality she’s currently in.
Schoenbrun does a fantastic job of making the audience question whether the World’s Fair Challenge is all real, or if it’s all complete bullshit. The rules and steps are intentionally vague, and we’re left wondering if in this world, this challenge is a legitimate situation affecting players, or if this is all just an elaborate massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Regardless of the legitimacy of the situation, Casey makes us question how far she’s willing to go within this experience, if she’s truly changing, or if she’s just great at making unnerving content watched by only a handful of people.
This concern comes in the form of JLB (Michael J. Rogers), an older player who offers an “in-game channel for serious players only.” Only showing himself to Casey with a creepy avatar, he asks her to continue filming herself so he can know she’s still okay. Similarly, Schoenbrun doesn’t provide easy answers about JLB and his true intentions, or his level of dedication to this experience. Again, it’s that ambiguity about how real this experience is for both Casey and JLB that makes We’re All Going to the World’s Fair a film that will get under your skin and crawl around until long after the film is done.
Yet amongst the chilling online videos, the potential degradation of Casey through uneasy videos, and the possible lecherous nature of JLB, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is also a fascinating exploration into our extremely online culture that uses the internet as comfort, escapism, and even as a way to find communities that make someone feel not so alone. We never see Casey or JLB interact with anyone else in their world outside the internet. Casey’s father yells at her from another room, and JLB has an unspecified woman walking around his house, but in the real world, there’s a haunting isolation that permeates who they are. Casey keeps videos on at night to help her go to sleep, and when she decides to take herself sleeping to record her “changes,” it almost feels more like a way to let someone in, instead of a form of documentation. JLB also seems to shut down when he’s not talking to Casey, as if he’s just sitting and waiting for his next online interaction.
On the internet, we can be whoever we want to be. Online, one can escape the routine of everyday life, and become part of a group of like-minded individuals. Even if the community is small, it’s something. Accepting the World’s Fair Challenge isn’t a way to experience a The Ring-like challenge that will probably lead to horrors beyond one’s wildest imagination, it’s a way to be part of something, damn the consequences. Schoenbrun’s impressive debut latches onto that idea of online communities, coming-of-age, and finding one’s own people through a genuinely uncomfortable and unique horror story unlike any other.
Rating: B+
We Are All Going to the World’s Fair is in theaters now, and will be released on VOD services on April 22.
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