Horror fans who are unfamiliar with the internet’s obsession with the viral “Backrooms” creepypasta might find it perplexing that a seemingly innocuous collection of empty rooms, adorned with yellow wallpaper and bathed in the sterile glow of fluorescent lighting, can be inherently creepy enough to inspire an entire movie. They might also wonder why A24 initially chose to market this film, “Backrooms,” with a teaser that simply pans down floor by floor through a series of those rooms.
A Descent into the Uncanny
Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” answers these questions effectively and delivers a truly unsettling experience. Expanding upon his popular YouTube shorts (which have garnered over 78 million views), this film is deeply unnerving and haunting. In an era of spectacle-driven cinema where many movies are quickly forgotten, “Backrooms” leaves a lasting impression, provoking lingering shivers and ongoing anxieties. It’s smart, elevated horror for those tired of slashers, but it also delivers plenty of visceral shocks. The best recent comparison is Zach Cregger’s “Weapons”, another deeply frightening film built around excavating the uncanny without unpacking all its mysteries.
Originally inspired by an anonymous 4chan post and expanded online by eager contributors, the concept of the Backrooms centers around a liminal space outside of reality. This space poorly recreates real spaces, often remixing or blurring them. Parsons’ YouTube series (posted under the name Kane Pixels, starting in his mid-teens) mostly consists of found-footage-style videos shot by the research institute Async, which deliberately tore a hole in reality to access the Backrooms and sent agents in to explore. These videos are fragmentary clips that suggest a larger story without actually telling it. They’re spooky and atmospheric rather than narrative, and they don’t answer many questions about either Async or the Backrooms. The movie version fills in some of the blanks while still leaving plenty of mystery behind.
A Man Out of Sync
Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Clark, a deeply frustrated architect struggling to rebuild his life after opening a furniture store. His wife has kicked him out due to his alcohol abuse and lies. He’s sleeping in the store among his own cheap furniture. One night, while investigating electrical issues, he discovers a portal leading into an endless, impossible space with oppressive fluorescent lighting, uncanny geography, and misshapen objects mirroring his furniture.
Clark starts exploring, drawing in his employee Kat (Shrinking’s Lukita Maxwell), her boyfriend Bobby (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Finn Bennett), and Clark’s therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve). He quickly becomes obsessed and realizes there’s something else in this space – something unpredictable and unknown.
Economical Storytelling, Profound Mystery
The script, from Ash Vs. Evil Dead’s Will Soodik, is impressively economical. He gives the characters enough depth to be interesting while withholding enough to keep them mysterious. Soodik does the same with the Backrooms: Newbies can walk in without prior knowledge, but longtime fans of the collaborative Backrooms fiction will find it expands significantly on the mythos without robbing it of too much mystery. Clark is beautifully balanced between a stock character and an unknowable enigma.
The Power of Suggestion
Parsons effectively expands his shorts into a feature-length story that captures the unsettling otherness of liminal space. The sheer illogic of the Backrooms feels threatening, and the remixing of commonplace objects feels nightmarish. The omnipresent fluorescent hum is oppressive enough to keep viewers on edge.
From the moment Clark steps into this new reality, there’s a sense that anything could happen. Parsons plays fair with the audience, saving jump scares for when they matter and using the bland lighting and dark spaces to create unease. When events come to a head, he shifts into pure terror mode.
The fact that the characters aren’t always uneasy enough in the early going keeps the tension high. Clark and Bobby explore with manic excitement, ignoring Kat’s anxiety. The movie ultimately takes them in an eerie direction, reminiscent of David Lynch, particularly in some of the imagery.
A Delicate Balance
Soodik and Parsons give the twists internal consistency that lands more solidly than Lynch’s dream logic, while still leaving plenty to discuss. By the end, they’ve answered enough questions to satisfy audiences without cutting off further possibilities.
Like many memorable horror movies, “Backrooms” feels ripe for sequels and spin-offs. The question is whether those films can maintain the mysteries hanging over the Backrooms. Horror sequels tend to overexplain and overdevelop, answering questions that shouldn’t be answered. Here’s hoping we never fully find out what the Backrooms are or why they make the hair on the back of our necks stand on end.
“Backrooms” premieres in theaters on May 29.
Source: Polygon
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