One Star Classics : We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Apr 27, 2022 / Creepypasta

Here is a film that is either a big, fat nothing or a work of genius. Increasingly, I’m thinking it’s the latter.

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair has stuck with me, even though very little happens through its ninety-minute runtime. We follow Casey (Anna Cobb), a lonely teenager with an affinity for horror movies and viral videos. One evening, she decides to take the World’s Fair Challenge, an online game that is supposed to change the very essence of your being. She pricks her finger, smears blood onto her screen, and every day, she posts a video diary documenting her changes. Those quickly take a turn for the bizarre. Or do they?

It’s hard to tell what is an actual change in Casey and what is a despondent high-school student playing make-believe. For those who watch her video, it may seem like Casey is becoming possessed by a spirit and is turning violent. But then, is she putting on that persona to get more viewers?

Complicating the matter is a mysterious viewer named JLB (Michael J Rogers). Over Skype, he claims to see fundamental and worrying changes in Casey. The World’s Fair Challenge has been around for decades, he says; he knows all about it. He is there to protect her.

Or is he a middle-aged man with questionable motives?

The movie provides few answers, even though it certainly has plenty of time to do so. Preciously little happens during the ninety minutes, and the story unnecessarily drags on at times. It wouldn’t have hurt to slice off ten to fifteen minutes.

Yet, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is also haunting. Its many questions have stayed with me, and even now, I feel somewhat uncomfortable thinking about it. It’s an eerie movie—you just need to watch it with some patience.

This is Cobb’s first performance, and she is very, very good as a solemn teenager. Her portrayal of Casey goes a long way in making the slower sections seem more interesting than they strictly are. Rogers, too, is appropriately creepy.

You might brace yourself for a slow burn before watching We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, but in the end, it is worth it. It’s a haunting movie, one that stays with you. Is it a work of genius? It might just be.

Those Creepypasta films, ranked

OK, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair might not technically be a Creepypasta movie, but it shares enough DNA for me to lump it in with its peers.

I Saw the TV Glow
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Butterfly Kisses
The Toll
47 Hours to Live
Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story

By Remi, Apr 27, 2022

Letterboxd summary: Reality and fantasy begin to blur when teenager Casey, alone in her attic bedroom, immerses herself in a role-playing horror game online.