By Jayia Matree
Originally starting as a simple anonymous post on the site 4chan in the 2010s, now has evolved into a full fledged movie with an $81 million debut, creating the youngest filmmaker ever to hit that level of success in the Box Office. Kane Parsons was able to turn his Youtube series of horror ‘found footage’ into a movie that shocked the film industry, making way for more spotlight pointed at young and ambitious film directors.
First off, the opening scene is recognisable for those who have followed Parsons’ YouTube series: an individual who was unfortunate enough to stumble into the liminal walls of the Backrooms with only a camcorder on their person to record their fear fuelled exploration. There’s no music, only the sound of buzzing from the overhead fluorescent lights that would make the average office worker go mad in less than a month and uncomfortably heavy breathing from the lost individual.
The sequence is a familiar pattern yet still anxiety inducing either way, and I appreciate that it doesn’t feel any different from watching the Backrooms YouTube series. For others, it may be predictable and perhaps they wanted something more in the movie, but I think it fits the style of loops, the constant rinse and repeat and inevitability, which I’m glad Parsons had kept in the movie.
Another aspect of the film that I enjoyed was the main character(s). Clark, played by Chiwetel Eejiofor, was a man who was struggling; living in a failing furniture store, stuck in a miserable situation with only his therapist, Dr Mary Kline, played by Renate Reinsve, as an outlet to find how his life went so ‘wrong’.
But he isn’t the only one with troubles, both Clark and Mary suffer from trauma, experiencing memories and handling their emotions in contrasting methods. Despite that, they both become trapped in the Backrooms, one finding crazed solace in the space and one successfully escaping but not truly free from the grasp of the looping labyrinthine as the ending implied.
From a horror aspect, Parsons did an incredible job creating a silent atmosphere permeated with footsteps, uncanny noises, and the textbook monsters that are mindlessly relentless in their desire to kill. It made me tense whenever they re-entered the Backrooms, the unpredictability for infinite jump scares in such an empty space that can house from nothing to anything was compelling. Plus, the cinematic shots were amazing. I love how colourful, vibrant and bright the real world was compared to the dreary, yellow-muted palette of the Backrooms, almost making you want the characters to just no-clip back and never return to that nightmare-filled space again. But they do in the end, classic horror storytelling.
This movie definitely deserves the traction it has gained from the few days that it’s been released, especially knowing how much Parsons cares for this series turned film, and letting the community dedicated to it run wild with theories and creativity, allowing that freedom that contradicts the trapping nature of the Backrooms.
