Backrooms” has an unassailable premise, a unique visual flair, and masterful production aesthetics. It’s no surprise that the web series of the same name by director Kane Parsons was such a phenomenon, as there is something inherently thought-provoking and terrifying about unexplored liminal space that expands out into infinite nothingness. Parsons has clearly been working for his entire career on the concept, and “Backrooms” is without a doubt a passion project where the work is on the screen.
However, it’s a classic example of a story that works best within a short-form medium, as expanding the aperture does not make it more interesting. The moments in “Backrooms” that work are highly inventive, signifying a filmmaker on the rise, but it’s also burdened with extraneous material, underwritten characters, and a mythology that only deprives the surrealist spookiness.
“Backrooms” is a feature-length adaptation of Parsons’ highly popular series of YouTube horror shorts, which were inspired by a popular creepypasta. Set in 1990, the film follows the struggling furniture store salesman Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) as he tries to support his independent business, all whilst coping with a bitter breakup with his ex-wife. Clark seeks out the assistance of the therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), who encourages him to work through his feelings by simulating arguments that were waged during the last era of his relationship.
However, Clark’s grasp on reality begins to shift when he discovers a passageway in the middle of his store, which leads to a vast alternate reality filled with unoccupied rooms that resemble the architecture of the building they were found in. Clark’s curiosity leads him to search for answers within this unknown territory, causing Mary to grow more concerned for his stability.
The sparsity is clearly what made the original shorts so compelling, but “Backrooms” bends over backwards in order to justify showing nothing of the outside world. The 1990 setting seems to have no purpose other than limiting the feasible technology that could be used in this situation, as there are no cultural references or specific hallmarks representative of the era. The only real instance in which “Backrooms” feels like a period piece is when it replicates cheesy self-produced commercials for local businesses, which is one of the rare instances in which there is any humor.
Few details are given about Clark and Mary’s lives beyond their professions, as they are not given dimensionality beyond their strained therapeutic relationship. Although there is an intention to show both characters as being isolated people who are haunted by life-altering moments in their pasts, it makes for flimsy drama that gives the great actors little to work with.
Ejiofor still manages to give a great performance because Clark is a temperamental character who reflects the audience’s perspective as he is introduced to the confusing world, but also reveals himself to be a narcissist when his obsessions lead to awkward social assumptions. That Clark has gotten used to a solitary life makes him surprisingly well-suited for an exploration into a silent, enigmatic maze, and the surprising comfort he finds within the backrooms leads to some of the film’s most haunting moments. However, everything related to Clark’s rage, alcoholism, and failed marriage feel cliched, and even an acknowledgement of the familiar tropes made during the film’s finale doesn’t do much to add anything more.
Reinsve is saddled with a character who simply feels incomplete, as Mary’s transition from being an emotional counterpart to Clark into a core protagonist asks a lot of a character whose personality isn’t fleshed out beyond her professional capabilities. There’s also a flashback structure that hints at Mary’s past, doing no favors in a film that is already dealing with a premise that is more interesting than the characters.
She’s such an inherently compelling actress that the bonkers conclusion, which mostly requires reactions and physical expressions, works on an emotional level. However, Reinsve has shown such brilliance in recent years playing difficult and unusual characters that “Backrooms” feels like a waste of her talents. There are unquestionably moments of effective tension in “Backrooms,” as any moment in which Kane doesn’t undercut himself with a jump scare is unnerving in the banal formality.
While some of the visuals outside of the backrooms themselves feel rather bland, there are moments of symmetry in which the flattening of both realities into a monotone dead zone hints at the psychological effects that these unreported trips have had on Clark. Although “Backrooms” is mostly shot from an objective perspective (except for more stylized flashbacks), there’s an interesting reading of the liminal space expanding based on what its visitors bring to it.
The reason to see “Backrooms” is also its biggest flaw. The film’s third act contains truly original feats of body horror and avant-garde hostility, yet also makes a mistake in explaining too much. There’s little that pops within the dialogue to begin with, and it’s disappointing when the film spells out its ideas in no uncertain terms. Kane clearly crystallized the logic of how this nightmarish environment works and changes over time, but the most interesting explanations are conveyed through conversation alone.
It doesn’t help that there are massive leaps forward in terms of characterization that require the viewer to fill in a lot of gaps for themselves. It’s not a crime to ask the audience to do some work, but “Backrooms” is already an overlong 110 minutes with a lot of extended scenes in which halted momentum does it no favors. There’s a point at which the methodical, slowly paced narrative progressions cease to feel like a stylistic choice and begin to dampen the momentum.
“Backrooms” is a visceral treat with strong performances, and it does work to create a completely original atmosphere of horror that is not reliant on references to other media (even if there are a few less-than-subtle “Twin Peaks” parallels during the climax). It’s certainly a compelling cinematic experience that finds innovative ways to expand the original premise, but less may have been more with the specific concept of “Backrooms.”
