Backrooms

Backrooms is so much bigger than the horror movie itself. In order to explain the movie, we need to explore the history of "Backrooms".

The concept of the Backrooms started as an online "creepypasta" (essentially, an internet folktale) where images of empty, abandoned spaces were posted online--initially on 4chan, but eventually on Reddit and other more mainstream social media sites. I personally first heard about "Backrooms" on the forum website Something Awful in a thread titled "Cursed Images". 

Backrooms is a simple concept--liminal spaces, with maybe a hint of nostalgia or familiarity. But also very creepy. The images make you want to explore the spaces but also run away from them. A 4chan user suggested that the way to get to them was to "noclip" out of reality--to jump or fall into another dimension. But once you're there, you can't find your way back out because the Backrooms are labyrinthian. 

In early 2022, YouTuber Kane Parsons, only 16 years old at the time, created a web series about the Backrooms that went viral and set the stage for the film. In the series, getting lost in the Backrooms isn't the only danger. There is something living down there as well. 

Now, at 20 years old, Parsons directs this feature-length film starring award-winning actors. To me, whether Backrooms is the perfect film or not (it's not) is besides the point. The fact that a young guy not old enough to drink legally created such a viral phenomenon and then directed a movie that is making more money at the box office than the Mandalorian and Grogu film is an achievement beyond most people's wildest dreams. 

What is even more astonishing is that Kane is good at directing! The directing and set design of Backrooms are the movie's strengths. The film takes place in 1990. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, the owner of a furniture store who is also currently living in that store since his wife kicked him out of their house. The only humans Clark has any regular contact with are his employees, Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and Bobby (Finn Bennett), as well as his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve).

One night while fiddling with the store's breaker box, Clark sees a light shining through what should be a solid wall in the store's basement. When he goes to put his ear against the wall, he literally falls through it and into what looks like a massive, abandoned office building. He begins exploring and discovers room after room after room--some completely empty, some with random furniture or detritus. There are tiny doors to crawl through and doors on the ceiling. There's also the sense that someone--or something--is following Clark.

Clark tries to explain this to Mary, who understandably is confused and thinks Clark is suffering from alcoholic delusions. Clark then recruits Kat and Bobby to explore the space, bringing a camcorder and rope in case they have to scale a drop. Things go sideways almost immediately.

After Clark leaves a cryptic message for Mary, she goes to the store and sees the outline of tape indicating the "door" to the Backrooms. When she walks through it, she is astonished to see that Clark wasn't lying or delusional. 

This is where the movie became not so great. The film's weak points (in my opinion) are the script and the pacing. The movie tries to explain what the Backrooms are and add a layer of emotional meaning on top. Basically, the Backrooms are memories. Or rather "the space remembering things". This is why everything is just a little wrong--because memories are never crystal clear; they're always a little off and a little faded. But how the Backrooms came to be is never explained (which is a good thing!). 

There is a message layered on top of the mystery which is essentially: we get stuck in the Backrooms when we refuse to change. Clark decides he has never felt more "right" in the Backrooms. Because he doesn't want to change. He doesn't want to consider how he contributed to his divorce or his failed career. He wants to live in faded memories. And being unwilling to escape the "loops" of his life seals Clark's fate.

But we really didn't need this. I would get rid of all the scenes trying to make meaning of the Backrooms for more scenes of actually exploring the Backrooms. I would have preferred a slower build of dread. We have three scenes in the Backrooms (even though each one is lengthy): Clark's initial discovery and explorations; Clark returning with Kat and Bobby; and Mary's discovery. In each of these sequences, more and more is revealed and there are some goosebump-inducing moments, such as when Bobby enters a room, looks up, and sees a hallway running vertically, like some fucked up MC Escher painting. I wanted more of this and less therapy speak.

That said, Backrooms is a very unique horror film with a set design and cinematography that is unlike anything I've seen before. Even the scenes not shot on grainy videotape *feel* very 1990s. And the design of the Backrooms is the stuff of actual nightmares. 

For all its flaws, Backrooms is worth seeing. The film is crushing it at the box office, especially given its modest budget. It's making people want to go to the movies and see it on a big screen. It's always exciting to see a new voice in horror, especially a guy so young. I'm excited to see what he'll do next.

Grade: B+