What began as a viral YouTube series makes its feature debut in Kane Parsons’ horror film of the same name. Most YouTube filmmakers could only dream of doing so for A24 though – let alone scoring actual Chiwetel Ejiofor as their star. In that respect, Backrooms is of a classier vintage than most.
Sure, Backrooms loyalists may baulk at the big-name actor (or actors, depending on where you place Mark Duplass) and move toward traditional filmmaking. At their heart, the original shorts were a smattering of found footage films which bore more in common with a V/H/S segment than your average A24 film. Not so this feature-length adaptation, which largely eschews the found footage approach in favour of a tale about one man’s desperate need for validation, and the woman responsible for talking him down. Boiling it down more than that? It’s The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror IV meets Severance.
Ejiofor plays furniture salesman Clark, who discovers an entrance to the titular Backrooms in the basement of his strip mall showroom. Immediately hypnotised by this labyrinth of beige carpets and magnolia walls, what he soon comes to realise is that he’s not alone. There’s more lurking in the back (rooms) than wonky-looking furniture and headache-inducing ceiling lights. Enter the man’s therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve) becoming involved when Clark leaves a chilling message on her answering machine. Full of worry for her patient, she enters the Backrooms herself. Will she, like so many dead seagulls and lost souls before her, find only her demise there? Or does something even messier await in the flickering shadows?
That’s more depth than some would have liked from a series founded on creepy visuals and shaky camerawork. With it, a sneaking suspicion that something has been lost in translation. Could Parsons have spent 2 hours just vibing it with a handheld camera? Sure. Should he have? That’s up for debate. Regardless, the story’s structure should ultimately help Backrooms cater to an audience wider than those who’ve discovered the word ‘liminal space’ within the last five years and made it their whole online personality.
Ejiofor is delightfully messy as the whiskey-chugging, showroom-sleeping Clark, and a fine vessel to traverse the Backrooms with. It’s hard not to draw a parallel from his plight to that of the modern AI user, especially as he falls further down the rabbit wonky chair hole. And then there’s Reinsve’s Mary, who finds something entirely different in this pocket dimension – a man who would rather surround himself with Broken Mirror imitations of reality than take accountability for his actions. And the more literal monsters, of course.
However one feels about the approach, Backrooms still manages to do justice to its setting. The visuals look tremendous, having lost nothing in the transition from YouTube to the big screen. It’s still gratifyingly real, throbbing with a disquieting wrongness which pervades every frame. The 1990s setting helps get across that essential feeling of nostalgia, while Parsons and co-writer Will Soodik extend the scope in a manner which feels natural yet true to the location. Those worried that the film might over-explain its unknowable locale can rest assured – it’s denouement is every bit as baffling and obtuse as the YouTube series which preceded it.
Its approach may divide opinion, but Backrooms emerges as one of the year’s most striking horror films. It’s Backrooms for the masses, but has lost none of the core weirdness which made it so enthralling in the first place.
BACKROOMS is out in UK cinemas now.
