PLOT: Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the owner of a discount furniture store, discovers a strange hidden room in his shop. It turns out the room is a portal to an endless maze existing in a realm somewhere outside our reality.
REVIEW: Backrooms is among the buzziest horror titles coming out this year. Directed by Kane Parsons, who’s only twenty years old, it’s based on his web series, which itself was inspired by the enduring creepypasta phenomenon of the same name, making it an exercise in “liminal horror.” What’s that, you may ask? “Liminal horror” is a style built around feelings of unease, emptiness, disorientation, and a sense of unfamiliar familiarity rather than monsters, gore, or jump scares. In a genre like this, less is more, and it certainly makes Backrooms a unique piece of horror movie-making.
I’m somewhat ignorant when it comes to the whole Backrooms mythology, as I went into this wholly unaware of either the creepypasta or Parsons’ shorts. I knew there was some kind of mythology built around them, but I avoided digging too deeply because I wanted to see if Backrooms worked as a film in its own right for a general audience. While it will likely play even stronger for fans of Parsons’ series, the barrier to entry is pretty low.
It helps that Parsons recruited two terrific actors for the leads, with Chiwetel Ejiofor’s natural intensity making him perfect for the frustrated Clark. A former architect, he’s now a barely functioning alcoholic living out of his cheap furniture store after being kicked out by his wife. His therapist, Renate Reinsve’s Mary, is trying to help him deal with his issues, although she seems haunted by deep-rooted trauma of her own, much of which is only hinted at throughout the film.
Yet, it’s the backrooms themselves that are arguably the true stars of Parsons’ film. Existing in what feels like another dimension, they’re both familiar and deeply unreal. As Clark says, imagine someone who had never seen a dog being asked to draw one based only on a verbal description. That’s what the rooms feel like, with their ugly yellow fluorescent lights, staircases leading nowhere, and gradually shrinking spaces.
The film is at its best when following Clark, and later Mary, as they explore the seemingly endless maze, which also appears to be populated by figures who, like the rooms themselves, feel both real and unreal. The movie’s most intriguing aspect is trying to figure out what exactly the backrooms are, with the groundwork clearly being laid for what could become a major franchise for A24. Actors like Mark Duplass pop in for small roles that hint at a much larger mythology waiting to unfold.
Despite being only twenty, Parsons also does a good job recreating a period aesthetic, with the film set in 1990. The vibe of an early nineties department store is well observed, and I especially appreciated some of the unusually deep-cut needle drops, such as The Payolas’ “Eyes of a Stranger.”
My only real issue with Backrooms is that it runs a little too long, with some pacing issues making it feel lengthier than its 105-minute runtime. I also didn’t find it especially scary, although I suspect that may be somewhat generational, and I can easily see it working as a strong entry-level horror movie for teens (it’s rated R, but in my opinion, it’s a very soft R). It may even encourage younger viewers to seek out the works that clearly influenced Parsons, with the David Lynch influence especially strong throughout. Backrooms didn’t wholly work for me, but I was intrigued enough to go along for the ride, and if A24 inevitably makes another one (based on the pre-sales, that seems like a no-brainer), I’d definitely be on board.
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