A man discovers an entrance to a place full of rooms that seem never-ending and sinister.
A mind-bending thriller that will be discussed in length.
There is so much one can say about Backrooms, but not much without spoiling it. So, I will keep this relatively generic and to the point – for now anyway, because there is a TikTok episode right with its name on it.
The first thing that must be addressed is the casting. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve are brilliant choices and fully understand the psychological weight of the material – an audiovisual experience that constantly threatens to dissolve into existential abstraction. And then there is Mark Duplass, whose brief presence somehow adds even more unease to an already unsettling experience.
But the real star of the film is unquestionably the production designer Danny Vermette, who is the production designer in Osgood Perkins’ films, who is a producer in this film. He’s the one who’ll make you say “I like what you’ve done with the place”, which is partially why audiences paid – and will continue paying – the ticket price. The architecture itself becomes the horror. Pay attention to the perfect imperfections: asymmetrical hallways, endless office-like spaces, unnatural room transitions, misplaced and half-sunk furniture, dimensions that feel awfully wrong. Everything appears familiar yet fundamentally alien. The mono-yellow photography, the fluorescent lighting, the constant buzzing ambience, and the oppressive emptiness combine into something nightmarish.
And then come the people inhabiting these spaces. The makeup effects are exceptional, creating figures that become “memorable” in more ways than one. Keep the quotation marks in mind.
Naturally, the film’s greatest hook remains the mystery itself: What is this place? How can it exist? How does one escape it? Is escape even possible? Writers Will Soodik and Kane Parsons refuse to provide simplistic answers, and thankfully so. From beginning to end, the film commits to uncertainty and existential dread rather than exposition-heavy convenience. Not without certain issues in pace and rhythm, and not without concerns in dialogue, especially after the second half. The impact of the film, though, will make you think about things more thoroughly afterwards.
The reported “30,000 square feet of actual backrooms” built for the production was absolutely worth it – even crew members allegedly got lost inside it. And you feel that immersion onscreen. No surprise the film became A24’s biggest opening success – grossing over $50 million domestically and over $100 million worldwide in its opening weekend. There is a chance that it will join the pantheon of mind-bending films, such as Triangle (2009), Coherence (2013), and Predestination (2014), but I wouldn’t place it there*. Personally, it did not evoke those feelings or not on that level, anyway. That does not mean, by the way, it is far off.
The film, as noted, is largely mind-bending but leaves crumbs behind. I’ll leave you with some of these crumbs should you be interested in some direction.
*”Indie, Low Budget, and Utterly Mind-Bending”: https://kaygazpro.com/indie-low-budget-and-utterly-mind-bending/
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Mild spoilers:
- “The Window Within” (book).
- Furniture in a lifeless store.
- The infinite loneliness.
- The idea that consciousness itself evolves through memory.
- “It’s every place there’s ever been”
