"I swear, some day soon, I am just gonna disappear. And you won't have any idea what happened to me."
We're All Going to the World's Fair is a "coming-of-age horror" film written, edited and directed by Jane Schoenbrun. It stars Anna Cobb in her film debut and Michael J. Rogers. Schoenbrun followed it up with a Spiritual Successor, I Saw the TV Glow, in 2024.
The plot focuses on Casey, an isolated teenage girl who begins playing a Creepypasta Alternate Reality Game called "World's Fair" in which players watch a supposedly reality-altering video and then regularly film updates of symptoms they develop in the aftermath.
Tropes:
- Alternate Reality Game: The "game" is purely user-generated and involves "players" posting videos in which they purport to develop strange symptoms after pricking their finger, reciting "I want to go to the World's Fair" three times, and watching a video of strobing lights.
- Ambiguous Ending: It's not clear if Casey really did reach out again to JLB like he says she did, or if she did "disappear"/kill herself and JLB's simply making up the story.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Casey is only ever seen in baggy, unisex clothing and is using a unisex alias, so she could be nonbinary, but it's never made clear. Her alienation and talk about "turning into someone else" also have some serious trans undertones.
- Ambiguous Situation: At the end of the film, there are multiple factors in doubt. One reading of the film is that the "World's Fair" game has always been mutual ARG roleplay developed by independent creators, of which Casey is one. In this scenario, Casey has been growing upset with her viewer JLB for him egging her crafted story into darker places than she wants and stepping over her burgeoning creative impulses, and ultimately breaks things off with him when he breaks the roleplay and spoils the fun for her altogether. Another reading is that the game has been very real for Casey and she is experiencing supernatural effects and is alarmed and disturbed to hear the "expert" JLB claim the whole thing has never been real, because it was to her, and something terrible happens to her. Alternative to both, the game isn't real, but Casey has been undergoing a mental crisis due to believing it is. And we never know if JLB's story at the end about reconciling with Casey and her being pulled back from the brink is true.
- Author Appeal: Jane Schoenbrun is nonbinary, and Casey has an Ambiguous Gender Identity.
- Beard of Sorrow: After a supposed Time Skip of one year, JLB is sporting a week's worth of stubble as he claims to have finally learned of Casey's fate. In spite of the happy end to his story, he closes with a forlorn expression.
- Body Horror: Apparently a common theme in the World's Fair game. One video has a young man with some sort of lesions growing on his arm. He burrows his fingers through them and pulls out raffle tickets. In another video, a woman claims to be turning into plastic.
- The Cameo:
- If you're familiar with online horror, you might recognize (a pre-transition) Valeria Santiago of Stan Frederick fame, although she doesn't last long.
- Horror YouTuber May Leitz (AKA Nyx Fears) appears for a few seconds as herself in a voiceless online video.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early in the film, Casey takes out her father's shotgun in the barn to look at it. Much later, she states that she's going to use it to kill her father and then herself. We never see her do this, though her fate is left ambiguous.
- Creepypasta: The purpose of the game is apparently to create short horror videos supposedly chronicling your descent into madness or Body Horror.
- Death by Cameo: Valeria Santiago of Stan Frederick.
- Epic Tracking Shot: There are a few shots that follow a character as they walk around for several minutes.
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: The visual motif of the World's Fair involves strobing colored lights. We see them reflected on Casey's face as she watches the video and several more times throughout the film. In the end, the last we see of Casey is her face illuminated only by the lights.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: We never find out JLB's name. Casey claims that she's not using her real name. In the end, JLB claims that they both exchanged their real names.
- Leave the Camera Running: The film features quite a few sequences that go several minutes without a cut.
- Minimalist Cast: The film has only two characters: Casey and JLB.
- Mood Whiplash: Casey performs a goofy dance for her channel, suddenly starts shrieking uncontrollably for several seconds, and then goes back to dancing as if nothing had happened.
- Pædo Hunt: JLB is a man in his 50s who takes very acute interest in a teenage girl he found online. It's not clear whether he's actually concerned for her or whether he's grooming her. When JLB admits that World's Fair is just a game and offends Casey, she accuses him of being a pedophile and severs all contact with him.
- Palm Bloodletting: Part of the World's Fair ritual is pricking your finger and smearing blood on your computer monitor.
- Riddle for the Ages: Very little is explained by the end of the film.
- It's ultimately left ambiguous as to whether Casey's symptoms are real, if she's faking them to fit into the game, or if she starts out faking them and actually does go insane.
- JLB's identity and motives are unknown. It's never revealed who he is, how he came to live in a mansion, what his intentions are toward Casey, who that woman is behind him in one scene (credited as "JLB's ???"), or why he spends so much time in a bedroom apparently once occupied by a child.
- We get no confirmation of what happened to Casey or whether JLB's narration of her fate is true.
- Shout-Out: After Casey uploads a video in which she acts like someone else while apparently still asleep, JLB says it's like Paranormal Activity.
- Tarot Troubles: Casey gives a tarot reading for one unspecified viewer of her channel and uses the results to sling some tough criticism.
- Time Skip: After Casey "disappears," we cut back to JLB, who claims that one year has past, and he's finally heard back from her. It's not clear if this is true.
- Unexplained Accent: Casey has a very strange accent that several reviewers have noted is hard to place and makes her sound even more alienated. It sometimes sounds Scottish and other times more New York. Her father sounds purely American. The actress was born in Texas.
- The Voice: We never see Casey's father and only hear his voice once, when he shouts at her to be quiet through her door.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It's left ambiguous as to where Casey is living, though a shot of a highway reveals a lot of cars with yellow-gold New York license plates. JLB states he returned to Long Island after meeting Casey.
