Movie Review: Backrooms

By John Corrado

A lot has already been made about the fact that Kane Parsons, the director of Backrooms, is only 20-years-old, and for good reason. It’s impressive because this is such an assured feature debut from him, with Parsons showing a clear vision throughout this liminal spaces horror movie.

Expanded from the series of creepy YouTube shorts that he made on his computer as a teenager and posted on YouTube, to call this movie somewhat of a phenomenon wouldn’t really be an understatement. It has already broken the record for biggest opening weekend from the youngest director, and is indie studio A24’s biggest hit on top of it.

Parsons has assembled a small but impressive cast to bring his vision to the screen, guided by a pair of Oscar-nominated actors in Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. Ejiofor stars as Clark, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, a rundown discount furniture store.

Reinsve is Dr. Mary Kline, Clark’s therapist, who talks him through the breakup of a long-term relationship that has forced him to be trapped in a mental spiral. Mary is an expert in these mental loops, having written a book about them, while still parsing through vivid memories from her own traumatic childhood. The actors elevate these largely archetypal characters.

One night, Clark discovers a hidden doorway in the wall of the store’s basement, that leads into a seemingly endless series of yellow hallways; i.e., the titular Backrooms, which are set up in the creepy opening flashback. It’s a place filled with Escher staircases, forced perspective rooms, and discarded furniture, with every corridor leading to another one.

What are The Backrooms? Nobody really knows, and the film doesn’t really attempt to answer that, either. The appeal of the original short films was that they operated almost purely off the eeriness of liminal spaces, and the movie Backrooms plays off of this as well. The film is intentionally vague in terms of details or backstory. This is a horror movie that is more about the vibes, as the kids would say, and those vibes are consistently unsettling and creepy throughout.

The screenplay by Will Soodik is admittedly a little thin in places, and the characters can feel a bit underdeveloped. But the film’s visual language makes up for it. The production design is truly the most impressive aspect of Backrooms. Much of it takes place in these endless hallways, littered with abandoned items sinking into the floor, and the use of practical sets allows them to feel very tactile, like real spaces we can actually get lost in.

Set in 1990, the film also plays off a certain nostalgia for a world tinged by the yellowish glow of halogen lights, before LEDs took over and made everything look cold and harsh. An eery Christmas scene evokes childhood memories of the melancholy feel of the holidays. The cinematography by Jeremy Cox offers a compelling mix of styles, from static wide shots, to extended found footage sequences that make creative use of the camera being a physical prop within the scene.

On a deeper level, the Backrooms might represent the psychological loops we create for ourselves that trap us in our own minds. But, at risk of getting too cerebral, the film also has its own internal logic and captivating aesthetic that is easy to just get caught up in and enjoy on a surface level. It’s the right mix of heady and accessible to both attract mainstream audiences, while also giving them a bit more to chew on. A creepy, surrealistic dinner scene, for example, seems primed to serve as a gateway drug to David Lynch for many younger viewers.

Working on a modest $10 million budget, Parsons has crafted a film that embraces minimalism to maximum impact. There is a sense of serendipity to the fact that Backrooms is in theatres at the same time as Curry Barker’s Obsession, another low-budget horror made by a former YouTuber in his twenties that has turned into a surprise box office hit. It’s been inspiring to watch the success of both movies, a pair of original films that have organically brought young audiences back to theatres due entirely to the unique visions of their creators. The future of horror is in good hands.