Backrooms
The creepy web series reaches its apotheosis in young Kane Parsons’ accomplished directorial debut.
Imagine this: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Image courtesy of A24 Films.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
One would be misguided to approach Backrooms expecting anything coherent. That is not the point. The film is based on the 20-year-old director’s own web series, which itself was inspired by the Backrooms creepypasta, an internet phenomenon where users post their own content designed to explore the line between reality and liminal space. If you can imagine a cross between Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Christopher Nolan’s Inception, then you might be screaming from the same hymn sheet. What is truly remarkable about the film is that Kane Parsons, who has been dabbling in video content since he was 14-years-old, has mounted a relatively big-budget ($10 million) movie based on the concept.
The therapist Mary Kline (Oscar nominee Renate Reinsve) talks of the paths we have adopted since childhood in order to navigate our own sense of who we are as adults. She herself is still recovering from the trauma of a dysfunctional childhood (and a mentally disturbed mother) while treating an alcoholic divorcee and failed architect who is now running an unsuccessful furniture store. The latter, Clark (Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor), is suffering from anger issues and is perplexed by the inexplicably high electricity bills of his premises. Calling in an electrician, he is further mystified to find three additional breaker switches mounted at an incongruous angle on the distribution board. When he snaps them off, the power of the entire store goes dark, save for a crack of light emerging from a basement wall. Exploring the crack with his hands, Clark stumbles through a portal into a surreal, brightly lit space that seems to defy normal perspective. As he investigates the area further, he encounters a series of rooms, doors and passageways dotted with malformed chairs and sofas seemingly sinking into the floor. And it gets weirder…
As Kane Parsons and his scenarist Will Soodik lead the viewer down this particular rabbit hole, the real world retreats as if we are trespassing on someone else’s disturbed dream space. As a display of novelty psychological horror, Backrooms is an accomplished production showcase as the 30,000 square feet of studio space segues into an interminable M.C. Escher woodcut. One cannot fault the film for its theatrical construct, but for a stray viewer hoping for a more logical experience, the result might be more a case of the horror of bafflement – and perhaps frustration – than anything bordering on the scary. It is certainly disturbing in its own way, and may well haunt a person’s dreams for weeks to come (or for months), but ultimately it’s a deeply unsatisfying trip. Unless, that is, you are already a fan of Kane Parsons.
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, Avan Jogia, Robert Bobroczkyi, Ember Ambrose.
Dir Kane Parsons, Pro James Wan, Michael Clear, Roberto Patino, Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, Osgood Perkins, Chris Ferguson, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and Kori Adelson, Screenplay Will Soodik, Ph Jeremy Cox, Pro Des Danny Vermette, Ed Greg Ng, Music Edo Van Breemen and Kane Parsons, Costumes Mica Kayde, Sound Eugenio Battaglia, Dialect coach Elizabeth McLaughlin.
North Road Films/21 Laps Entertainment/Atomic Monster/Phobos/Oddfellows Entertainment-A24 Films.
110 mins. USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 29 May 2-26. Cert. 15.
