“I found a place.”
At the start of the year there were two films I was really looking forward to, Exit 8 and Backrooms. They both deal with the concept of liminal spaces, something I’m very much interested in and entertained by. (Mostly. See my 2024 review of Skinamarink for some limits on how much random non-contextual space I can enjoy.) Having seen both of them now, I can say that there is still plenty of (non-contextual) space for different takes on liminal horror and that I enjoyed both films for different reasons.
I don’t think we need to go into the genesis of Backrooms any more than to say that the concept originates in a 4chan meme from 2019 and that director Kane Parsons has an entire series of YouTube videos inspired by the concept that set the groundwork for the film. You can get more background info from any number of online sources at this point, if you need it. (Including spurious speculation about whether Parsons actually directed the film, which strikes me as primarily ageist BS.) I went into the movie without having seen any of the short films, but I’m looking forward to digging into them now, as I understand they provide more information and context (while not being necessary to the enjoyment of the film). I’m thinking of them like Blu-ray extras that I can experience before there’s a physical release.
Liminal spaces have been in horror for a long time, from the supermarket in Messiah of Evil to the “four minute hallway” in House of Leaves to Silent Hill and more. The idea of places that are in transition or abandonment, normal locations rendered surreal and unsettling due to the absence of people or context, is inherent to the concept of the haunted house, for instance. I do feel like that essential concept has undergone a change (a transition?) in the last forty or fifty years, though. As a society (and I’m particularly talking about the US, though I’m sure there are plenty of examples in other countries) we’ve built a staggering array of structures that were meant to be used by masses of people. And then we’ve abandoned them. Malls. Office buildings. Box stores. Spaces left behind, with nothing more than the memories of what they used to be, and the people that inhabited them.
Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) owns a furniture store that seems like it’s on the edge of becoming one of those abandoned places. It squats in a strip mall that also seems dead or dying. Inside, the furniture displays barely fill the massive expanse. It feels like a borderland – an antechamber to the Backrooms – which it absolutely is.
The film doesn’t start out with the store or Clark, though. Instead, we’re immediately shown some worldbuilding, with the lone survivor of an expedition into the backrooms attempting to escape. There’s a backstory – setting lore – that we’ll get glimpses of throughout the film. While the primary narrative is about haunted people finding a dark reflection – or memory – of spaces in the world, there is also a mystery, a mythology, that is being built. Having gone in without seeing any of the existing material and not knowing if there will be sequels, I have to admit I found these scenes distracting. It’s stuff that would be great in the first season of a mystery-box TV show, but doesn’t quite work for a standalone film.
Clark stumbles upon the backrooms because he’s been reduced to sleeping at his store. He’s going to therapy, and we learn that he’s had to leave his home (“his”) because his wife has left him. He’s got anger issues and alcohol issues, and he admits this to his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), but he doesn’t seem that interested in engaging in the process. In changing. Ejiofor is such a likeable actor that it’s at first difficult to realize that Clark is actually not a good person. He blames everyone and everything else for circumstances that are a result of his choices. Of his continuing choices. Like entering the backrooms and dragging others in with him.
Clark’s initial explorations are stressful, but also interesting. This new world – all yellow, fluorescent lit, occupied by random detritus – is unsettling, yes, but it’s also a way out of the same paths, the same rooms, the same sad life he’s living. You can feel Clark’s growing excitement. Not that it completely negates the unease. As Clark wandered away from the blank wall he came through, deeper into the backrooms without marking his path, someone in my row at the theater exclaimed, “what the hell is he doing?”
Clark’s obsession with the backrooms and finding (or describing) meaning in the space ensnares others. (Leading to an excellent found footage interlude that was pretty terrifying.) There are also those cameras that are placed in random locations, meaning someone is watching. And there is something else, something moving in the distance or behind a door or coming, just out of sight, down the hallway.
Backrooms is partly a horror movie about weird, unsettling spaces that seem endless and empty, but actually contain multitudes. There are monsters, there is violence and terror. (And some unexpected humor.) It’s also about people who are themselves liminal, who exist on the borders of reality and who don’t really seem to connect to existence in a meaningful way. Clark is endlessly looking for a way to justify his choices, while Mary uses her profession of helping others to avoid dealing with a traumatic childhood. They’re both alone, and the film seems to suggest that the backrooms attract these sorts of people. Or seeks them out.
One of the themes of the film seems to be about our ability to reconcile the various parts of ourselves, the things we hide – from others, from ourselves. If we simply accept the darker parts of our natures are we healing? Are we moving forward? Or are we giving permission for those elements to consume us?
In general, the film works very well. It builds an atmosphere of dread and suspense, and when the horror goes from a whisper to a scream Parsons makes sure we’re on the edge of our seat. Cinematography, set design and sound are great.
I’m just not sure the whole film gels the way the director wanted it to. I felt like the characters were not quite as developed as they could be, and a lot of my speculation about their inner life is just that, speculation. It’s me digging meaning out of things like a scene late in the film where Mary stares out a window at blue sky and wondering if that’s meant to connect to an earlier flashback where, as a child, she attempts to open a newspaper covered window only to be reprimanded by her mentally ill mother. Maybe. It’s not clear. And those mythological elements featuring men in biological contamination suits, closed-circuit cameras and an interrogation room throw off the rhythm and end up feeling like an anticlimax (despite the welcome appearance of Mark Duplass as a scientist). Maybe if it had been a stinger, instead of the last scene of the movie. As it is, it feels like an ad for the next film, rather than a conclusion to the one we’ve just seen.
The Bottom Line
Backrooms is an enjoyable and interesting film, successfully leveraging an online phenomenon into an effective and offbeat horror movie. While there are elements of the narrative – particularly the ‘mythology’ – that tend to undercut the pacing a bit, there are also plenty of moments of dread and terror. It’s the kind of film you may walk out of the theater thinking “that was pretty good, but what was the hubbub about?” only to find yourself thinking about it the next day. Director Kane Parsons has a lot of talent and skill, and I very much look forward to his next project.
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