Director: Kane Parsons
Writers: Will Soodik, Kane Parsons
Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renata Reinsve, Mark Duplass
Synopsis: After a therapist’s patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.
Horror can be found in the most unexpected of places, sometimes in locations that are incredibly familiar to us. In May 2019, an anonymous user on 4chan found the horror in his post about “the backrooms,” an endless space of bare walls and no exits, with yellow fluorescent overhead lighting that buzzed loudly as you walked through it, a musty and moist scent following you as you realize you are forever trapped. The post went viral quickly, with many beginning to speculate and wonder what the backrooms were and where they led. Many theories and stories were shared. From “entities” inhabiting the “liminal space” who moved towards you, to various “levels” that expanded the backrooms, the background around the purpose of the backrooms began to take shape. In January 2022, the rooms were brought to life through a 10-minute short made with Blender and After Effects that explores an endless space that is constantly transforming. The director, Kane Parsons, captured the hopelessness and fear found in the backrooms in horrifying fashion, leading the protagonist through the endless space with his camcorder documenting everything.
The short was its own viral sensation, racking up 78 million views at the time of writing this piece, and over the last few years, Parsons built extensively on the lore of the backrooms (or as it is named later, “The Complex”), along with the addition of different kinds of “entities” and “levels,” an organization looking into how the Complex functions, entrances to the backrooms appearing in the most random of places, and people wanting to understand how the space operated more. Throughout it all, however, answers were seldom given to fully explain the Complex, leaving many of its mysteries ambiguous, even as the more devastating incidents of people going missing began to escalate.
22 shorts later, Parsons brings the mysteries of The Complex to the big screen with the feature film Backrooms. The plot is simple: Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) runs a flailing furniture store based in Santa Clara Valley, California. Life, as of late, has not been going well for Clark, both personally and professionally, and is even seeing a therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), to try and figure out what to do next. However, one day, he discovers an anomaly within the walls of the store, as a blank spot leads into a space that is filled with endless rooms lit with yellow fluorescent panels above and random bits of furniture just lying around in bizarre ways. As he begins to look around, however, this space begins to take on a more sinister form.
Much like the shorts, Backrooms is an incredibly atmospheric watch, with many extended moments of the movie built around characters moving through The Complex often confused and perplexed by what they are seeing. Whereas the YouTube shorts were “filmed” in first person (animated primarily in Blender) and presented as found footage case studies that were interspersed with presentations, the film provides a third-person perspective in a real built set sprawling 30,000 square feet, which amplifies the scale and emptiness of the Complex more, though it does also have moments captured through a camcorder in a character’s hands, as well. The cinematography here from Jeremy Cox is eerily effective, with every corner of the space and startling object captured with intense precision. The production design from Danny Vermette is some of the year’s best so far, particularly when the lower and more bizarre levels of the Complex begin to unravel in all their musty, dirty, yellowed glory. Beyond just the backrooms, however, the look and feel of 1990s Santa Clara Valley is also showcased in an effective manner, as advertisements on TV and neighborhood layouts in the town evoke the moment of time well, the attention to detail ever present once again.
From its opening sequence to its final act, what also really shines is the direction from Kane Parsons. At the age of 20 making his feature film debut, he brings to life chilling sequences with horrifying imagery as if he has been directing for the better part of a decade (which in a way, with the shorts, he has). In this bigger jump in scale, however, Parsons is effective in still keeping events contained and providing a claustrophobic feeling to the proceedings, and even capturing that eerie atmosphere which prevails throughout in an unsettling manner. This includes everything from moments where Clark and Mary are discussing what is going on to quieter moments where characters reflect or react to something. Once the backrooms are discovered and the movie begins to venture further in, with something potentially chasing him at times, the moments with extended blank spaces purposefully feel much smaller and less expansive, even as the sets become more complex. When more violent events begin to happen, those are often unnerving to watch, and make for some effective jumpscares as well. All of this is further backed by Parsons and Edo van Breemen’s ominous score, adapting themes from the shorts and adding an extra layer of dread to them for this feature.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, both Academy Award nominees, are expectedly great here, particularly in the latter half of the movie as both bear witness to aspects of The Complex. Both get ample opportunities to shine and work with the material. However, it is with their characterization that the movie does suffer a bit. While more often an audiovisual experience where the main character is really the liminal space Clark and Mary are in, Backrooms does also aim to give its leads a more emotional breakthrough at times, albeit with not much development past their initial scenes. As a result, some of the moments of catharsis the script aims for at a later point of the movie don’t fully land. These moments, however, are still more than some of its supporting actors, as characters like Bobby (Finn Bennett) and Kat (Lukita Maxwell) get next to nothing, despite doing a fine job in the movie. Mark Duplass also stars as someone who becomes involved in everything, and gets to shine in his limited screen time, despite also not knowing much about him.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Backrooms, however, is that while it continues to maintain a sense of mystery in regards to how everything in The Complex works, it does attempt to give some amount of legitimacy to a few of the concepts introduced in the shorts. The ideas introduced help provide some form of thematic connection to Clark and Mary as well. As a result, there is a slight loss of ambiguity to some of it, particularly when revisiting the shorts after the movie. On the other hand, it makes said few concepts in the series far more interesting to look back on, while also continuing to maintain that not everything has answers.
Backrooms will likely prove to be a treat for fans of the original material and its most eagle-eyed viewers. While Parsons directs the movie in a manner that would allow audiences unfamiliar with the original material to watch it, there is an enhanced experience to be had with more contextual backing, especially as the narrative and characterization is a bit thin. By the end, however, what Backrooms does succeed at, is being a really solid horror experience that continues to showcase the talents of young filmmakers in the industry and pave the way for even more impressive works in the future. Time will tell where Parsons’ career goes, but if Backrooms is any indication, he will go a long, long way.
