I’ve noticed, in the past year or so, there seems to be a number of horror movies coming out from people who got their start on YouTube. Some of these efforts seem to be better than others, but the one that may have had the most anticipation was Backrooms. Based on what is arguably a bit of viral storytelling based around a photo of a dismal-looking room with yellow wallpaper and carpeting. That led to a series of popular shorts, and the director of those shorts, Kane Parsons, was actually tapped to direct a feature film version of his work, Parsons was, I think, about 17 or 18 at the time he started the movie.
That’s rather impressive, but was the movie good?
Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) owns a furniture store that isn’t doing too well sometime in the 1990s. His wife kicked him out of the house, he may be living in the store, and he doesn’t really have anyone in his life that he doesn’t pay to spend time with him in the form of his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) and some store employees. Clark is even sleeping in his store at this point, but the electricity is going crazy in ways that it shouldn’t. One night, Clark heads down to his basement to check the circuit breaker when he finds that there’s a spot on one wall that leads to somewhere else, a space of fluorescent lights, yellow carpets, yellow wallpaper, endless corridors, and random stuff stacked all over the place.
As it is, Clark heads down there with two of his employees and they may not be coming back. A cryptic message left on her voicemail also leads Dr. Kline into this mysterious realm. The thing is, they aren’t alone in there. Something unfriendly and big is in these endless corridors, and that’s assuming anyone unfortunate enough to end up there knows how to get back out again. Can anyone get out of this bizarre maze?
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this movie going in, so let me point out some things it does very well. There are two sequences that are, essentially, found-footage, and the movie may be at its best when it uses the found-footage, including a very tense opening scene. Ejiofor is good in the role of Clark. And Parsons has managed to create a world that is more disturbing than scary. Everything about the “backrooms” is just wrong, including the music on the soundtrack, and that creates a distinctive atmosphere that maybe isn’t scary, but it is noteworthy.
That said, the movie falls apart a bit in the final act. This isn’t the sort of movie that will provide answers, but when what’s behind the stomping footprints stands revealed, there isn’t anywhere near as much to strike me as all that scary, Then again, Parsons seems to be aiming more for disturbing than scary, and yes, there is a difference. Once the movie starts wrapping up the plot, it really becomes a much more standard horror movie where, for most of the movie, the real scares were just in the weird rooms and scattered piles of stuff all over the place. Clark, at one point, is fleeing something big and comes across a room with a Christmas tree in it that may be one of the more disturbing things to be found. Go for the atmosphere and the constant feeling that something isn’t quite right here, but don’t expect answers towards what the backrooms are, what lives there, or why anyone wouldn’t just immediately just back out the second they accidentally wandered in.
Grade: C+
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