Fantastic Film Fest 2022 Review - We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Images courtesy of Fantastic Film Festival Australia.

I remember I was 13 when a friend on MSN sent me a link that promised “real” footage of a possessed person. I sat there at our family computer, tucked away from my mother’s eyes in the corner of the spare room, as my cursor hovered hesitantly over the link. I was much more sensitive to scares back then, having only recently gotten over my fear of E.T. the year prior. Reluctantly, I clicked, and after just a few seconds of witnessing an emaciated man shuddering and murmuring nonsensically, I flitted over to the power button, slamming it with my thumb, both terrified of the scolding I’d get if Mum came in and what I might see if I continued to watch.

That feeling stayed with me for weeks, leading me down a rabbit hole of related Google searches, which in turn fueled nightmares, none of which I told anyone about for fear of having my precious computer time revoked. Thanks to experiences such as these, We're All Going to the World’s Fair is a film that finds itself able to tap into the shared consciousness of internet culture. After all, who hasn’t found themselves staring in bewilderment at what autoplay has conjured up after dozing off mid-YouTube, or dove a little too deep into creepypastas about Lavender Town Syndrome and “documentaries” about Slender Man?

We're All Going to the World's Fair concerns itself with Casey, a loner teen who we see begin the film by doing the “World’s Fair challenge” (a supposedly reality-altering online horror game not unlike the pre-internet “Bloody Mary” urban legend), in the hopes that documenting what follows will help her garner an audience on YouTube, or maybe even a friend. Without a frame of reference to who Casey was prior to partaking in the challenge, it’s hard to get a read on how much of what follows is real, a narrative decision no doubt made with the intent of further mystifying the film’s subject.

World’s Fair provides an eerily humanistic look into the isolation and possible mental illness of its main character, as it effortlessly glides between found footage, screen life and traditional filmmaking, weaving Casey into a tapestry of other participants and spectators. Actual YouTube creators such as NyxFears, Evan Santiago and Slight Sounds ASMR make appearances, alongside “JLB” (Michael Rogers), a stranger who reaches out to Casey with unclear motives, whose interactions make up the bulk of the narrative.

Viewers expecting conventional storytelling may find themselves disappointed with the film’s lack of answers; much like the internet itself you never know how much you can trust what’s being presented. While not packing the usual one-two gut punch of most of its horror contemporaries, World’s Fair blends familiar mumblecore, coming-of-age and micro-budget horror elements into a film that’s greater than the sum of its parts, equally unnerving, hypnotic and experimental in the same breath.

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We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is showing at the 2022 Fantastic Film Festival Australia, running 21st April to the 6th of May. For tickets to the festival and more info, click here.