A very young directing prodigy teaches us horror here by inviting us on a horror trip into the collective consciousness.
A back room? That sounds more like boredom: a narrow room that is perhaps crammed with storage items and where you only want to spend as little time as possible. One would think that it is hardly suitable as a setting for a horror film. But the calculation was made without Kane Parsons, who will give us one goosebump after another with his “backrooms”. This work literally eats into our brains and after leaving the cinema we need several minutes to get back to the so-called real world.
Scene from “Backrooms”
Long-form YouTube phenomenon
Not only is the film a sensation, but also the person of its director, because Parsons is only 20 years old and, at the age of 16, he released a YouTube short film of the same name in a found footage look under the stage name Kane Pixels, in which the eerie setting and imaginative visual effects were a perfect combination. His debut film has now received over 84 million views and has been followed by a few other short films from this Backrooms universe. No wonder that the time was now ripe for a feature-length film. Dhe horror experts Shawn Levy and James Wan were chosen for this one ideal A24 project as producer; the script comes from Will Soodik, who made a name for himself as the author of “Westworld”, “Homeland” and “Ash vs. Evil Dead”.
Scene from “Backrooms”
What does it look like in the backrooms?
These backrooms look like windowless, empty, yellow-walled office rooms and apparently extend into infinity, sometimes narrowing into narrow passages, then expanding into huge, light-flooded rooms or leading into dark, cave-like dungeons that can be reached via slides. Every now and then you come across the strangest objects – be it entire room furnishings with a couch, cupboard and dining table, electronic equipment, piles of clothes or water-filled swimming pools – and find doors in the most unlikely places. Anyone who was unlucky enough to end up in there will wander around endlessly and realize with increasing panic that they are not alone in this labyrinth because there are so many monsters lurking. By the way, Parsons also finds opportunity here to cleverly incorporate found footage scenes.
Scene from “Backrooms”
With the therapist in a dimension of horror
After meeting unsuccessful businessman and failed architect Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) ended up in this horror universe in an unusual way, urges his therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) also venture into the dimension of terror to save her patient. But is she up to this task? We learn from numerous flashbacks that she herself is struggling with a traumatic past. The imprint of a child’s hand in a piece of concrete becomes a visible symbol of memory. In fact, most of this horror actually takes place under the skull and the backrooms prove to be a worthy counterpart to one “Inland Empire”which was once built by David Lynch. Apart from this great (indirect?) role model, Cronenberg, Dario Argento and Stephen King should also be very proud of this example of a creative continuation of the horror genre.
Scene from “Backrooms”
Archetypes of the uncanny
Seldom before has the term psychological horror been taken so seriously: one has the feeling that the film brings together archetypes of the uncanny and links us directly to the collective (un)conscious. This is precisely why going to the cinema can become a very personal experience because it addresses primal fears that are just waiting to be triggered again in each of us. One thing should be clear: This film cannot replace psychotherapy – but perhaps you need one afterward.
It’s nothing short of a miracle that the two main actors didn’t actually go missing during this filming, because the sets that were constructed covered 2,800 m². But can you ever really escape the backrooms entirely? We actually carry them within us and their apparent infinity probably corresponds to the number of our brain cells.
5 out of 5 escape doors in the most unlikely places