By Cadence Powers
Author’s Note: This is a film that contains explicit gore and violence. Please keep in mind the rating when looking to view the film.
At just twenty years old, Kane Parsons, a YouTuber made popular for his “Backrooms”video game series, has put out his first feature-length film entitled: “Backrooms.” The film follows a recently divorced, down-on-his-luck discount furniture salesman named Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who finds a mysterious entrance to another world in the basement of his store.
Clark enlists the help of two of his employees, Kat (Lukitia Maxwell) and Bobby (Finn Bennett) to begin to discover the secrets of the immense, seemingly endless, world of interconnected rooms and passageways. But when the three of them don’t come back, Clark’s therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) begins to investigate what she thought was an utter fiction…
Despite some issues that I had with the film, such as the film needing to be longer in order to accomplish what it set out to do, or the story needing more development, it was interesting. There were very compelling parts of the story, namely the theme, method of filming and set design.
The film itself is left ambiguous in terms of themes. The story follows both Clark’s and Mary’s emotional arcs, though it offers no clean resolution to either. This leaves the viewer with many different interpretations of the film.
One of the themes could be the way that people respond to difficult times in their lives and how those difficult times affect them based on their willingness to change. Another could be the way that memory affects the world around us. Yet another could be AI making worse copies of what already exists. All of these routes are compelling to explore and the film doesn’t give a singular answer to what it is about. This leaves the viewer with a lot to think of as the credits start to roll.
There is also elevation of the story through the unique filming methods. The film boasts parts documented entirely in found footage recorded on the characters’ cameras as they experience this world. Filmed in a grainy, home-videoesk style, this method puts the viewer in the character’s shoes–portraying what seems like home video footage instead of viewing a high-budget movie. This unique storytelling device, while not used throughout the entire film, allows for more immersion into the story.
Looking at production elements, the filming method isn’t the only thing done with care. With literal miles constructed of practical sets, Parson’s debut film features all practically built backrooms. There were CGI and VFX effects involved, but Parson’s completely no-AI stance allowed for the film to boast an impressive immersion that would be hard to attain in any other way.
The writing was the largest issue I had with the film, though it may in part be due to length. Sitting at just under two hours, the film had a lot of complex ideas to explore. For what happened within that time frame, it did a good job of establishing certain dynamics or concepts. However, I do wish there was more development of some of the side characters and the relationships of some of the characters to the others.
I knew very little about this film entering it, in terms of Parsons’ worldbuilding that was already established. For some, this film was very disappointing if holding prior knowledge. For myself, I found it to be an interesting, though deeply unnerving film.
There are many disturbing elements, and it is meant to make the viewer feel discomfort over imagery or over certain events that occur. While it does contain a lot of interesting material, it is one that I would recommend with looking into the content warnings.
Images Courtesy of A24
Cadence Powers is a senior Professional Writing and Information Design major. She is also twenty years old but has not directed an A24 film—she has no idea what to do with this information.
“Backrooms” is currently playing in theaters and will be streaming on Prime Video later this year
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