I’d been anticipating watching this film prior to getting acquainted with Shudder and the wait wasn’t in vain.
With my mood(s) in mind, the lonely world that content creators inhabit is presented to you with harrowing luminosity whilst you watch Casey rehearse/re-record lines of dialogue for her minuscule YouTube audience. Stuff like this gets to me, forget Salo…
The first five minutes speak to the prodigious talent of the leading actress; she confers an isolated, depressed longing through simply looking into her eyes. In regards to the opening, it is abnormally stationary (in terms of camera angling) and the quality of the coloration goes without saying.
The editing of this feature certainly reminds me of ‘Megan Is Missing’ and one has to wonder, how many times has that reference been used in a complimentary sense?
Once the opening credits get going, one really notices the beauty of this piece (in terms of the musical score accompanying Casey traversing the isolated setting) – and the potentiality of what the full feature has to offer.
It was about time that ARGs became something professionally explored under such a medium – all due props go to POSTcontent for being the goat. It’s strange how relative his portfolio is after looking upon this film retrospectively.
Anyhow, the decorations encapsulating Casey’s bedroom depict an inherent spiritual susceptibility to becoming engrossed in such morbid curiosity – and the alienation from her family explores how one could become dependent upon socializing with strangers online. This is a great way of explaining her character; only eleven minutes into the film.
The premise of We’re All Going To The World’s Fair initially seems to be alike Ringu; except the symptoms accompanying this ARG are variable – or just dramatized.. Whether she’s fabricating such symptoms for attention remains dubious; though – she may be suffering as a result of her life experience (or lack thereof.)
The juxtaposition of having an audience as opposed to friends is made clear in just how artificial the dialogue of the lead is while speaking into her camera’s microphone. For someone so young, the multifaceted nature of how this actress goes about exploring such a nuanced spectrum of emotions is great.
Parental neglect is not the only contextual factor influencing Casey’s mental state; with her being ostracized from her locality/age-group due geographical factors.
TikTok culture and just how paradoxical it is in terms of connecting people through their own loneliness (and the pursuit of external validation) is brought into the blue-light; presenting the ills of the internet in a very dynamic manner. Casey’s premature awareness of this also keeps you on the edge of your own perceptions.
I’m fond of how it turns convention on its head by making what you would first think is a villainous hacker into someone genuinely empathetic; my uncertainty about his nature prior to the ending speaks for the writing quality of the feature.
At the midpoint of the film’s runtime you’re presented with a rather enigmatic situation, questioning whether the phenomenon is just a result of content creators riding waves; or is it supernatural? Or is Casey just a masterful troll?
Furthermore, the negligible amount of views Casey accumulates draws one into thinking that her content is only enjoyed by one individual – making his motives all the more dubious. The fact that he’s using QuickTime makes him all the more creepy!
That’s exactly the point, though, the middle aged man isn’t a technologically advanced black hat hacker; he’s just an obsessively empathetic individual; anybody cynical in regards to his motives mustn’t be all that technologically literate.
Content creators (be they successful, or not!) and the dangers they often fail to recognize – in terms of potentially obsessive (and predatory) audience members is acutely illustrated; alongside the fact that by imbuing such monologues into their work they’re in effect talking to themselves. This speaks for the real world ramifications of a generation maturing while enveloped in technology.
The movie depicts the dangers of collective ARG movements influencing real life events to the point where people put themselves in vulnerable positions – like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, but an internet version of Tails like that…
It makes one question if entertainers behave in an unhinged manner for publicity, or if their actions are ones that harbor authenticity. The lines blur and you begin to realize that they are one and the same.
The cynicism of online culture in regards to anonymized adults online is turned on its head in an impactful way – that’s rather true to life, if you’ve been privy to the nature of online communities in recent years. It’s most often that the more reserved people online that are the most empathetic in their behaviors; whilst those with a following most often perpetuate the sort of gaslighting that would lead a young girl like Casey to suicide (or worse.)
The poignant ending is perfect and it’s likely this feature will go down in history. We’re All Going To The World’s Fair is scary for everything that it omits. Without intervention from good men/women, evil will most often prevail.
Sedlo