We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Writer: Jane Schoenbrun
Cast: Anna Cobb, Michael J Rogers
Seen on: 16.2.2026

Plot:
Casey (Anna Cobb) takes part in the World’s Fair challenge: she watches a mysterious online video and is then supposed to report any changes that might happen to her. Plenty of people are taking part, claiming various effects. One of the people watching the challenge starts to contact Casey, warning her of imminent danger.

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is very obviously a feature debut – a little insecure at times, with experimental parts and a lot of creativity. It shows an awful lot of promise on a very small budget.

I went into We’re All Going to the World’s Fair pretty cold, having read very little about the film, apart from noting that it is horror and that Schoenbrun is the director (their second feature I Saw the TV Glow was enough reason for me to watch the film and I like going in cold for the most part). That meant that I spent a lot of the movie wondering about what exactly is going on with Casey – something that the one line plot description on imdb immediately gives away. I can recommend my approach, the sense of confusion certainly added to my experiecnce.

The movie is basically a one woman show, with Cobb carrying most of the film. If I understood correctly, it was her first movie performance, too, and I found her very impressive, especially considering that she doesn’t have an actor opposite her for most of the film. A lot of it is Casey recording herself for an audience that is practically non-existence (we get a glimpse at the viewership numbers on her videos, and I don’t think that they go into the triple digits). In those videos, Casey does strange things and some are creepy in the most intense way.

Casey‘s isolation seems a very important factor for the film in general, giving us the feeling that Casey is floating in a sphere of her own. When JLB (Michael J Rogers) contacts her, it appears that he tries to tether her somewhat, both an understandable impulse and a major intrusion. That the film relinquishes the ending to him feels like its weakest point, though I can’t say that it doesn’t fit.

There is a lot of promise here (though I might just be seeing the promise knowing how good I Saw the TV Glow was). Sometimes the film’s grittiness works in its favor, sometimes it makes it feel like the movie is missing something, unfortunately. Still, for a debut, it really is very good.

Summarizing: worth seeing for sure, especially if you like indie movies.