A guy struggling his way through life and therapy finds strange portal-like doorway in the basement of his furniture store that leads to a seemingly endless maze of weird, not-quite-right, office-like rooms. He goes inside.
Many of you probably know the rough real world story of this by now. The Backrooms are an Internet-invented idea that all began with this image and caption:
It sparked a whole community-driven bunch of lore and shared storytelling that turned the concept into its own little fictional universe.
While this was happening, young Kane Parsons was making videos based on the concept. He was just 16 when he made his first Backrooms video. It became a huge sensation, now at 86 million videos, and sparked a whole Internet series by him in which he created his own lore and mythology behind the setting, what it is, and how it’s being exploited. All as a teen.
This was that first video:
They continued to get better after this.
Dozens and dozens and dozens of imitators followed, but his work was and remains the version of the backrooms concept people loved best.
So while still a teenager, A24 offered him a chance to direct a real, genuine Hollywood movie based on his idea of the Backrooms. (Because the Backrooms is an open concept no one owns, literally anyone can make movies on it. Because of this, and because the movie ended up being a hit, expect a lot of imitators to follow … again.)
That’s how we got here.
Parsons, now 20, but still a teen when he directed luminaries like Chiwetel Ejiofor, made a horror movie based on his concept of the Backrooms.
And it’s really damned good, though the abrupt ending and dangling threads of mystery are going to frustrate the hell out of some.
It’s hard to say much more than the initial blurb without spoiling things, because the sense of unease as you enter the backrooms is much of the point. The sense of discovery, or lack thereof, is the vibe. To spoil that spoils the experience.
I can say this: the story itself is sparse, with just enough meat to provide motivations but not much else beyond that, save some plot turns in the last third that throw things askew. There is plot, make no mistake, but this is not a story-heavy movie. Mood and atmosphere are more vital, with character providing the meat rather than plot. We’re not as much following the twists and turns of the narrative as much as we’re being just as drawn in as the characters are. We want to explore this place, too. The screenplay merely gives them some character motivation to do so. We need no such motivation.
I’ll also say that it gets weird. Way more weird than even the original shorts did. Super weird. Potentially off-puttingly so, though I found the odd place it went to quite intriguing and thought-provoking. I can’t discuss it without spoilers, but shit gets creepy. It also gets laden with symbolism that really forces you to think about, consider, and unpack what you just watched.
You know how I just said character is more important here than plot? That’s heavily tied into this symbolism and the reveals that come later in the film. The metaphorical “monsters” are, or at least seem to be, far more closely tied to the characters than it initially seems (though whether that’s truly what is happening here is still hard to say.)
It’s a horror movie, but it’s not a bloody or gory horror movie. It’s not a jump scare movie, either. Not even 100% sure I’d term it as psychological horror. The thing about liminal spaces, the broad category to which the backrooms belong, is that they provide some other kind of dread. Something we know internally but can’t quite define.
That’s the core of this horror. That sense of dread.
It’s also one of the rare instances in horror where (to me) it makes sense that the characters would go further into danger rather than retreat. The pull of “what is this place?” is strong. In 99% of cases my instinct when watching horror is, “Turn around and go back, you idiot!”
Yet here, it’s, “Keep going. I need to see what’s around that corner.”
If the concept of finding a weird office space outside known reality is not compelling to you, I’m not sure this movie will sway you. And if you want things explained so you fully understand what the hell it is you just saw, this is for sure not for you.
But if neither of those apply, if you love exploring weird spaces and like strongly thematic metaphors being the glue that holds the weirdness together, Backrooms might have something to offer you. Good acting, decent writing, terrific mood and visuals, and the slow unfolding of some very unusual concepts that will leave you a bit unmoored by the end all make for a good experience.
And to be fair, there is an explanation at the end, but I’d consider it … hmmm, not sure how to put it without spoiling things. All I can say is, it’s not a black and white “explanation” as much as it is a hint at bigger ideas. It’s certainly not hand-holdy (though it may get a touch too literal for my taste). It largely trusts the audience to accept a fairly heady concept without the kind of infodump that marred, for example, the otherwise brilliant “Us” by Jordan Peele. As noted, many viewers will find it unsatisfying in that regard.
I do not. I like when a movie forces me to consider what it’s saying. That’s a strength too few films indulge in.
There is a very “what the fark did I just watch?” to all of this. That can be quite good or quite bad. Some mindfuck movies are just self-indulgent but otherwise empty. In this case, I think it’s very much for the good. I don’t give it a universal recommendation because it’s clearly not for everyone. (I’ll also note that the characters are not likable and you will not likely sympathize with them. Maybe at the start. Not by the end.)
But for me? This aligns nicely with my taste.
Backrooms marks the entry of a new young voice into the wider, non-Youtube world of filmdom, and I’m here for it. Kane Parsons has a great vision and knows how to execute it.
He’s just 20. I can’t wait to see what comes next for him.
PS – If the idea of strange, seemingly empty spaces that should not exist appeals to you, I also recommend his short film The Rolling Giant, which is the main part of his “The Longest View” series. The gist is, some guy finds a mega long stairway in the side of a hill leading deep, deep underground. It opens up to an abandoned shopping mall buried a few hundred feet underground. How on Earth is this place here? What’s down there, and why is it so creepy and unsettling? It’s a great, moody slow burn that he created all by himself. This kid — or rather, this highly-talented Hollywood director — is a one-man show!
