The Backrooms - A movie that superseeded my expectations!

HELLO ALL!! This is 1 part to a 2 part review, this half is mine, the other half is Heart_and_fangs!

GO CHECK OUT HERS HERE: https://friendrewind.com/blog/user.php?id=14147
 

Expectations:

I went into the backrooms with almost no expectations, I was never big into the online discourse surrounding it and really didn't know any of the lore beyond the original 4chan post and a reference from the video game "abiotic factor". Honestly, I expected the movie to be kinda bad, I remember one of the few things I did see was this like troll face looking wirey figure made of black goo or something and thought "dang, that would be a really really lame monster". Anyway, without spoiling anything this movie absolutely CRUSHED my expectations - in a good way!

Impressions:

This move was, as I said surprisingly good. To put it bluntly, it is everything I could have possibly wanted out of a backrooms movie. The depiction of the backrooms themselves are so creative, and a natural feeling extension of the short story its originally based on. The characters were fine as a mechanism for the backrooms themselves, with the MC himself being particularly well acted. Speaking more on the MC, I think the reason why I felt him so interesting was how well they did his personality. Without giving too much away, him being stuck as a store manager for a shitty furniture warehouse really let you feel how resentful he was, which made his emotional shift mid movie way more impactful. Honestly though my favorite part of the film was the lead-up to the monster. The found footage aspect was SO intimidating and the whole exploration of the backrooms segment was awesome and probably my favorite part of the movie. The music was.. fine and I don't really remember it, though for me music often has to be kind of expertly done to catch my attention. The monster itself is also super creative, I really liked it!

If I had to voice one complaint it would be the.. idk... scientists? I can't talk too much about this here, but I guess whatI ill say is the B-plot was less interesting to me than the A-plot.

Overall, before we get into spoilers, I want to say I recommend this film. I think you should watch it!


Analysis:

Okay so, again I dont know much of the lore that led up to this film being made but heres my thoughts on what the backrooms is all about. This part wont make much sense unless you've watched the movie already.

Firstly, now with spoilers I'd like to re-iterate that I thought this film was awesome. Captain Clark being the monster was intermediating as hell and Clark's shift himself into a psycho, luring in the therapist, also interested me greatly. Okay moving on.

I think the backrooms, at its core, draws upon the memories of people/ locations near the many entrances to itself or within itself. I don't think this is really conjecture, the movie basically says as much stating "its like something trying to draw the world with only a description". I almost want to compare it to a dream of an omniscient god, something that can see all and is now dreaming about it, creating reflections of reflections just as we do in REM sleep. This drawing upon memories and such seems to happen in two ways: 1, long term reflections, places or people that stay mostly the same being copied or remembered rather well, such as the backrooms version of te sales floor. And then there are reflections made of moments, which seem to be much less exact or put together. For example, Clark is not a particularly violent person, though he is temperamental. His reflection however was created at the moment that he fell off his chair in the commercial (which we know as the "throne" we see in the backrooms is tilted, as if falling), this moment of stress and anxiety and anger created a reflection that was the same way. Likewise, when the therapists reflection was created, it is very still, almost lifeless, reflecting the hopeless-ness and resolute nature of the therapist herself after putting together that the scientists aren't going to let her go alive. I think the backrooms also copies itself, leading eventually when the copies are so degraded they lose meaning, those areas eventually reverting to the "yellow office".

Apart from the backrooms itself, I think that the scientists were sort of a meta-commentary on attempting to "over explain" plots like this. You can get so lost in the sauce trying to theorize and analyze that you forget to just enjoy the spectacle or wonder at the unknown . They had lost their way, becoming consumed by the backrooms without even getting lost in them. This is shown by an uncaring nature to their employees or other people, despite the idea that this will "help humanity". They are lost in madness not unlike seeing the face of an old god..hmmm..

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of it all being the dream of some eldritch god, causing those who enter or study it to lose their minds. This is probably headcanon, but its also my best theory.


Anyway, thats my review! Apologies for the maybe lackluster impressions, I should have reviewed this a couple of weeks ago when it was fresh in my mind. I hope it was insightful anyway! Thanks for reading :)