The Backrooms Movie: A Rant

Hi all! I hope you're having a good day/night. Beware I may be a bit blunt with my wording in this blog, and of course, this blog will contain heavy spoilers for The Backrooms (2026).

I feel like this film was one big media literacy test, and almost everyone failed. 99% Of the people I see online that are being critical of the film had so obviously and completely misunderstood the entire film that it gave me a headache, so I want to break things down.

To start, a lot of people are confused about the ending of the film, which is quite honestly baffling to me because.... Like......... It was all explained. Plain as day. In the dialogue. Did we watch the same thing I'm actually shaking

"How is Mary in the backrooms again if she escaped?"/"Wtf happened to Mary?" are questions I'm seeing getting thrown around CONSTANTLY, and it is driving me up a wall. Mary escaped the backrooms and is BEING KEPT IN AN ASYNC FACILITY. The "Mary" we see in the ending shot of the film is her STILL LIFE. As Clark explained earlier in the dining room scene, the backrooms morph and create things based on the memories/experiences of those that enter them. Still lifes are part of that, that's why Captain Clark exists. He is a manifestation of Clark's experiences mutilated by the backrooms' inability to understand the memories it uses to churn out new parts of itself. The still life Mary we see at the end is just the backroom's version of her that came into being after Mary entered the backrooms and her memories and experiences subsequently became part of the backlog of material that the backrooms use to expand. Again this is all explained by the characters themselves, I have no idea how so many people missed this.

Another thing I'm seeing a lot of people misinterpret or just flat out miss is the overall message or I guess "theme" of the film. The Backrooms is about how humans process trauma, and many parts of the film reflect this idea. I'll use the dining room scene as an example:

When Captain Clark enters the room, Clark speaks to him as if the two interacted regularly during Clark's time trapped in the backrooms, and in a (at the very least) passive manner at that. It is heavily implied Clark considered Captain Clark a friend. So if that is the case, why did Captain Clark seemingly randomly decide to kill him?

Prior to all of this, Clark blamed everyone but himself for the many problems in his life, as Mary oh so eloquently put before Captain Clark waltzed in. This is an ongoing issue throughout the whole film. Clark constantly refused to accept any reality in which he was to blame, and that explains why he didn't leave the backrooms even after finding his way back to the exit point (except for probably when he left Mary the voice message saying he won't be coming back to their therapy sessions). In the backrooms, Clark could freely exist without having to face and confront the consequences of his actions, including his failed marriage and more presently the deaths of his employees. In fact, I'm more than willing to bet that's what ultimately made him decide to stay. I mean, what would you have done? Imagine you're responsible for the vanishing and (only currently known to you) deaths of two people (unintentionally but that bears no weight in the court of law), and as soon as you re-emerge back into the real world, all evidence will suggest that their disappearances are linked to you. You would've been cuffed and sentenced before you'd even be able to breathe a word about the backrooms, let alone convince someone to let you prove that such a fantastical thing exists, and Clark definitely knew that.

So, back to the dining room scene. Up to this point, everything Clark has done has been to avoid facing retribution. He is of the firm belief that he didn't do anything wrong, and then Mary proceeds to shatter that when she refuses to roleplay as Clark's wife. She confronts him with the truth: that everything that has happened to Clark is HIS fault. HE and he alone is to blame for the loss of his marriage, home, and any chance of living a normal life. His ego and denial lead him to this point- nothing else. THIS is why Captain Clark proceeded to kill him. Captain Clark is, as I said before, a manifestation of Clark's mind being interpreted by the backrooms. Still lifes on their own show no signs of having a consciousness, but they will mimic the actions of their real world counterparts since that is who they're based off of. Captain Clark was passive towards Clark before because in Clark's mind, everyone else was the enemy. But when Mary came along and ended that delusion, Clark saw that he was the enemy all along, and that mental shift is what caused Captain Clark's behaviour to change, and ultimately bring about Clark's doom. Clark's death was his trauma finally (and literally) consuming him.

This next part is more interpretive.

Mary compliments Clark because both characters spent a large portion of the movie in denial. Clark was in denial of being at fault for his misfortunes, whereas Mary was in denial about being able to fix everyone's problems. She comes to this realisation when she confronted Clark before his death. She is unable to fix everyone because she hasn't even fixed herself. She clings onto a piece of her childhood home's demolished driveway up until the final chase scene of the film- this is a literal representation of her childhood trauma following her everywhere she goes. Being forced to break the piece in self defence against Captain Clark is symbolic of Mary finally breaking the chains her trauma bound her with and choosing to live in the now (with her new trauma from the backrooms!!! Yay....... </3)

Okay, that's all for now.

There's more I can say, but I'd like to carry on with my night. I'd be very interested to hear other people's interpretations of this film and your opinions on it and/or this rant. As always, thank you for reading and make the world you want to live in!! Stay hydrated and take care :)