In 2022, a photograph within a 4chan messageboard thread inspired teenager Kane Parsons to publish a web series on YouTube that expanded upon the initial prompt to post “disquieting images that just feel off”. Four years later as his creepypasta videos have gone viral, he has fleshed out the idea by directing a feature-length film.
Sci-fi psychological horror Backrooms follows furniture salesman Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who is recently divorced and struggling with alcoholism. After discovering a strange portal within the basement of his showroom, he confides in his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) who is battling demons of her own. When he goes missing, she enters a mysterious dimension to find him.
Through empty corridors of mono-yellow walls, harsh strip lighting, and collections of unusual objects, Parsons skilfully crafts surrealist dread within the liminal space he explores. An effective found footage pre-title sequence serves as an intense prelude of what’s to come and with its immersive first-person perspective, suspense comes from the unknown entities lurking around each corner. In its expansion from shorts to the big screen, screenwriter Will Soodik sketches a somewhat flimsy narrative to pad out the lore – this ties Clark and Mary’s trauma to the terrifying experience in the third act but by only loosely suggesting a greater meaning to the madness, stretches of the film threaten to alienate the audience.
Despite their characters lacking fully realised backstories, Ejiofor and Reinsve give dedicated performances that sell the shock and horror of the extradimensional plot. Their therapy session scenes are compelling but feel imported in from a different film, disjointed from the textured, low-budget style of the furniture store. Supporting turns from youngsters Lukita Maxwell and Finn Bennett brilliantly play into the supernatural elements that might conjure Blair Witch comparisons but in contrast, Mark Duplass has a brief role that suggests dystopian influence from the likes of cult television hit, Severance.
Whatever it is trying to say or not, the abstract arthouse impact of Backrooms is emblematic of a new wave of cinema from a generation of chronically online filmmakers. Largely plotless, mostly senseless, but totally effective in its haunting grasp of fear and terror.
Cinema Perspective 