By Marc S. Sanders
I just learned that a twenty-year-old kid named Kane Parsons was approached by studio A24 to turn his online experimental videos of quiet, empty stillness into a cinematic feature of bottomless madness. The movie is Backrooms, the sleeper hit of 2026, and it is reminiscent of the unexpected impact The Blair Witch Project had back in 1999 when young filmmakers were inventive enough to rely on hand held cameras to obscure what an audience will see while also being convincing enough to ensure everyone was aware of an abnormal and haunting situation. Backrooms works, but not as well as Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity, both of which offered intriguing exposition for the thinkers.
A dated video tape from June, 1990 introduces an opening sequence that is entirely disorienting within an empty and seemingly endless office space blanketed in yellow wallpaper with the ear-worming hums of fluorescent ceiling lights. Our guide is a terrified young man with a handheld video camera who is hopelessly lost within this labyrinthine maze of no escape. There are odd placements of props, signage and furniture. Doors lead from one room to another, but there does not seem to be a final destination in sight.
I accurately predicted the “Juke Joint” of Sinners would eventually make it to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. Well, it’s likely we will soon be invited to roam the terrifying office maze of Backrooms.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is Clark, the owner/manager of Captain Clark’s Ottoman Empire. He’s also the infamous pirate mascot who promises “No Credit. No Hassles,” at this furniture store that sells a large inventory of stools, sofas, beds and lazy boy furniture. The kind of crap you’d find in waiting rooms or model homes. The stuff looks cheaply crafted and easily affordable, but also easily unwanted. He also lives in the store following a bitter divorce caused by a violent temper and a drinking problem teetering on excess.
Clark regularly visits Mary (Renate Reinsve, Oscar nominee for Sentimental Value), a therapist and the author of a collection of cassette tapes to help people compartmentalize their personal problems. These self-help tapes can be yours if you call the 800 number on your screen now. Operators are standing by!! Mary is dealing with her own personal trauma, having lost a daughter in a construction accident.
Effective horror will usually leave you a little shattered while you reflect on what you just witnessed. Essentially, horror is dark fantasy with a handful of hanging threads that depend on you tying them together long after you have left the theater. As our main characters uncover a portal in the downstairs showroom of Clark’s furniture store, Backrooms depends upon how your mind regularly struggles with memories and personal pains. The residual imagery of what used to be right in front of you might appear a little distorted and even a little more the next time you recollect. Do I sound vague? Well, isn’t that what you expect from a horror movie?
Initially, Clark literally walks through a wall into what feels like another dimension – this labyrinth of lemon colored office space. Nonsensical piles of furniture are discovered. Some objects are partially absorbed into the floors, walls and ceilings. There’s even a STOP sign standing upright?!?!?!? It’s funny that Clark mentions earlier how he wanted to be an architect and yet this strange dimensional world makes little sense from a geometric perspective. Walls move uphill. There are tiny doors. Tunnels are discovered. Sloping floors into darkness spark curiosity. There are also narrow hallways. A swimming pool? A musical cardboard cutout? To mess with our auditory system, random noises or nonsensical music chimes in at times. Dirty laundry is found with a repugnant smell. Amidst that pile of clothes might even be a familiar t-shirt.
Why?
A lot of what is seen is never explained and that’s okay. This film is comprised partly of shaky, crackling handheld camera material, and standard shooting to aid with exposition and character development. I had recollections of story beats from the TV show Lost and films like The Shining, The Cell and of course The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. Even a moment from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory came to mind. (“Oh, you can’t go back. You have to go forward to go back.”)
I have never played Minecraft. What little I know makes me consider if this young director, now the youngest to ever have a film earn over $100 million at the box office, branched his storytelling ideas off of what he might have constructed in Minecraft, or some similar kind of software.
I went into Backrooms knowing nothing about the film. I had not seen a trailer, commercial or read anything about it. I knew only to expect some disturbing suspense. The film starts out that way, and while I was as curious as Clark and Mary to cover more ground within this devoid maze, I started to become too relaxed with the picture. I guess because there was not enough to uncover. As plain as Kane Parsons’ bright environment of nothingness intends to be, I think it quickly exhausts itself of invention.
The last third of the film starts to offer more than a series of blank walls. Tangible evidence of what strings are being pulled present themselves. Unfortunately, Backrooms bottoms out into a tired “monster pursuing the victim” narrative. I’ve seen too much of that, and while I won’t spoil the creature of this feature, the imagery looks like something yanked a show airing on the Cartoon Network at three in the morning.
Kane Parsons’ best work presents itself when he’s demonstrating the possibilities for why this discovered dimension offers obscurities. His film begins to shred apart though when he needs to tell his story and table the showmanship.
Backrooms will be a much better and more effective movie when I reluctantly walk through it at Halloween Horror Nights.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 