BACKROOMS follows furniture salesman Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) as he makes a startling discovery in the basement of his showroom. A portal, bathed in yellow fluorescent lights and littered with familiar objects, leading to an eerie maze of endless office space.
The science fiction horror film is directed by Kane Parsons, in his feature-length directorial debut, and written by Will Soodik. Set in 1990, it is based on Parsons’ viral YouTube web series and inspired by the “Backrooms” creepypasta that orignated on 4Chan, which popularised the online obsession with so-called “liminal spaces”. The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell.
BACKROOMS is an experiential nightmare of the best kind. From the moment we enter the portal to the endless space a feeling of utter dread pervades the experience of watching Clark walk through the space. Like stumbling upon an abandoned location you know you’re not meant to be in, stuck between the feeling of knowing you should leave and the morbid curiosity of exploring to see how far it goes.
As this is a highly experiential film, one of the most important aspects is creating a visual language that is convincing and interesting. And Parsons achieves this brilliantly. The set design and miss en scene of Backrooms is absolutely incredible, it is what makes the movie. Without it it would be a generic horror fantasy about a wormhole that goes to some scary place. Rather, this is about liminal spaces that seem to reflect reality but aren’t what they actually appear. One extended feeling of being in an abandoned office building or shut down mall, gone deeply wrong.
Additionally, there is incredible cinematography, both inside the backrooms world, and in the outside world. In the ordinary world, the film is set in San Jose, California. Parsons shoots the city with an immaculate eye for strong geometric shapes in the way he frames the archutecture and the natural landscapes. It’s a very interesting way of platyng with framing and horizons. Parsons loves hard angles and making places look picture perfect in a nearly sterile and ultra-modernist manner. Even the vistas we get of a sunset lit golden and pink Californian skyline are aestheticised in a way that works well with the the absolutely chaos of the backrooms world.
In terms of the story and character development, Parsons keeps things in a nice middle-ground. At times it is a highly experimental psychological thriller that leaves many questions unanswered, such as how the backrooms exist, whether they are a physical reality or whether they a figment of people’s minds. At other times, it offers deep psychological reflection grounded in good character development that provides convincing reasons for why the characters are experiencing such a nightmarish reality. Both the lead characters struggle with their mental health, one being a depressed divorcee that feels extremely isolated, and the other having been raised by a mentally unstable mother who was institutionalised. A series of flashbacks place enough doubt in your mind that the backrooms could simply be a physical manifestation of their internal trauma, or at the very least, a place that is extended and created by traumatic memories.
The layer of sci-fi storytelling is also well-written, even if it a little thin and creates more doubt than it does certainty, but for a film of this kind, it works. In broad, non-spoiler commentary, Parsons gives some explanation as to how the backrooms came to be, or at least came to be discovered, and that there may be people more informed about exploring it than simply those who stumble upon it.
Most importantly, the experimental nightmare that BACKROOMS takes audience through is well worth it. The eerie, haunting, yet ethereal score combined with the endlessly expanding imagery of blank spaces with surreal familiar yet bent landscapes soothe you into a sort of fever dream that is completely transfixing. Like the main character, the curiosity of what can be found is what drives this movie to be so compelling.
Backrooms is in cinemas from May 29th.
If you enjoyed our Backrooms review, check out more from Screen Brief below.
Read more Movie Reviews from Screen Brief.
Follow Screen Brief on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
