TLDR: Well-made bit of a banger, solid 8.5 out of 10. Interesting premise that Kane thankfully was able to put into a theatrical medium that didn't just turn into zoomerbait one liner slop.
WATCH THE MOVIE BEFORE READING FURTHER, i beg you. It is much better on a watch without going in knowing anything.
I was a fan of Kane's work before the movie and the movie is indeed connected to his youtube series, but I think a fresh experience is best here. Pirate it, watch it in theatres, whatever, just watch it.
Long Version
HORROR?
This was probably one of the better "horror" movies I've watched in a long time. By horror, personally I define it as dread from atmosphere and tension. I would not consider this movie a slasher or jumpscary movie that has begun plaguing modern horror media, which is a good thing IMO.
PREMISE?
The original premise of the Backrooms was simply a place outside of our reality, just "on the other side of the wall." Something mysterious, endless, yet just barely recognizable. To paraphrase the movie, it's like if reality was misremembering itself. I won't bother going any deeper on describing it, most anyone understands the premise but this is just how the movie and Kane Pixels describe it.
The movie opens with a perspective of a scientist(?), presumably a member of the company most prevalent in Kane's youtube series, ASYNC. Lost, but trying to contact the company. The scene set ends with him getting chased and most likely getting killed by some monster.
- We never get to fully see the monster, which seems to be an A24 classic, and I liked it. A faliure in a lot of modern horror media is fully revealing the threat before it every really becomes a threat to the protagonist, removing all tension and terror from its appearances.
A large chunk after is dedicated to introducing our core four characters:
- Clark, a divorced, failing storeowner with a severe case of narcissistic denial. He can't ever take responsibility of what occurs in his life, "it's always someone else's fault." He discovered an entrance to the Backrooms in his store.
- Mary, Clark's therapist, and the story's true protagonist. She's introduced as being somewhat successful with her life, and is the first person Clark tells of the Backrooms.
- Kat and Bobby, Clark's employees, and the first people he takes into the Backrooms. Kat is a ditzy city chick, and Bobby is a brash weedhead.
- Phil, an ASYNC Scientist. He watches Clark enter a room within the Backrooms through a camera, and is then unseen until the end of the film. He is the audience's real window into what ASYNC is: a company trying to grapple with the reality that is The Backrooms, and not secretly some big evil organization.
Kat and Bobby, I have no real criticisms or likes of them. Bobby dies to the "monster" of the backrooms, and Kat chases after it as it drags him away, getting lost in the process.
I am intrigued by Mary's character. It's clear she has some deeper connection to either the Backrooms or ASYNC, as multiple memory-like flashbacks occur in her dreams, to her insane mother hiding her away as a child, eventually being taken from her. I presumed that Mary's mom discovered the BR or worked at ASYNC when they discovered it, and lost her mind trying to comprehend it.
I absolutely love Clark as a character. He's flawed, of course, but absolutely marvels at the discovery of his lifetime. Understandably, he can barely describe anything he's found to the other characters, until after he's been lost within for some time. He is revealed to be the story's true antagonist in the end, having killed Kat, and kidnapped Mary when she tried to find him. In his therapy sessions, the duo reennact the night that Clark's wife left him, trying to get him to understand why things went so wrong. Clark in his insanity forces Mary to reenact it once again, only in his worldview - nothing was his fault, until she snaps, and tells him the obvious truth. He dies at the hands of the Clark Monster, an imperfect copy that the Backrooms made of himself as a pirate (a mascot for the store), which he thought he had befriended over time.
In the finale, the CM chases after Mary through the backrooms, until she reaches an almost perfect copy of the Store's upper level, where she is able to fend it off and escape, only to be "caught" by ASYNC, seemingly by complete accident. She is given some aid, then questioned by Phil, an ASYNC Scientist.
THEMATICS
There are a few scenes that I was both absolutely in awe watching, and being in absolute dread watching.
During the first "chase" where Clark nearly escapes the monster, he encounters a pitch black room with a lit up christmas tree. I don't know how, but this room immediately skyrocketed the tension from an already occuring chase scene. Call me the A24 soyjak, but I'm pretty sure I was hyperventilating watching that scene, I don't think any movie had ever made me that scared before. The tension is released by a copy of someone suddenly appearing from the darkness as Clark observes the tree, continuing his escape.
Much later on, of course my favorite scene is Clark and Mary's "reenactment," and the climax of the story. Less horror and more literary analysis here, I loved this scene because it revealed so much of Clark's insanity, and his desire for control over his life.
Within the room are three Copies, one of a fat man, another a crippled man, and finally what seems to be Clark's Wife. None of which truly look "human," they look wrong. Too many noses, eyes, ears, they're not even made of "flesh." Clark displays his insanity in full by scalping his "wife" and placing the scalp onto Mary, to have her fill the role. Finally, it properly introduces the Clark Monster, who seemed to have some connection with his counterpart. Clark pleads with the monster, expressing that "nothing has to change." I believe this is a broad remark of what is happening in the BR - that it's slowly becoming places "stuck in time," and things only "go wrong" when people get involved.
Finally, in the movie's "outro," as Mary and Phil reflect on the story, we get a few scenes of the true depth of the Backrooms, starting with Mary's childhood memory, and falling through the floors, layer by layer getting more distant from the memory, only to land on a dank, dark room, with a copy of Mary, sitting in the chair that Clark trapped her in.
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I think the movie was great. Not a 10/10 vantawhite gemerald of a movie (I'm not sure any a24 film is), but it's great. It's a perfect example of how much good work can get done if you're not some lame ass corporate suckup or hollywood cult member. I have not seen Markiplier's Iron Lung yet, but I hear many of the same praises for that movie.
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SNCA: My Take on the Initial External Discussion of the Movie
We watched it on opening night over a discord call, and afterwards read up on a lot of the """"criticism"""" of the movie.
Long story short, almost every person bashing on the movie is a kid younger than 16 whose only exposure to the Backrooms is roblox jumpscare games. No kane pixels videos, no games (no wonder theyre all roblox tards), no wiki, nothing. Absolutely no patience or appreciation for what proper cinematic horror is. Anyways...
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I might do game or movie reviews on the Forums since I used to do that on IFunny. Probably more games than movies, I don't watch tv or movies that often. I've probably only watched Dune 1 and 2, Backrooms, and Star Wars: Andor in the past like six years.
