By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"BACKROOMS" TRAPS VIEWERS INSIDE A STYLISH BUT FRUSTRATING NIGHTMARE
Thank goodness for
Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Children of Blood and Bone"). Without him, the new horror movie
"Backrooms" might have completely drifted into the void.
Ejiofor, alongside Renate Reinsve ("Sentimental Value"), brings the movie to life, especially during its stronger third act.
Directed/written by 20-year-old viral YouTube creator
Kane Parsons, along with screenwriter
Will Soodik (TV's "West World"), the film expands on his wildly popular found-footage web series inspired by the "Backrooms" creepypasta phenomenon.
For the uninitiated, creepypastas are internet-born horror myths that spread and evolve online like modern urban legends. Familiarity with Parsons' original work definitely helps, because the movie, often assumes the audience already understands the strange rules of this universe.
Ejiofor plays Clark, a failed architect whose life has quietly collapsed around him. His marriage is over, he's drinking too much, and he now works--and practically lives-- inside a struggling furniture store called Cap'n Clark's Ottoman Empire.
To make matters worse, Clark spends some of his time dressed as a pirate mascot filming painfully awkward local commercials with his filmmaking employees Bobby (Finn Bennett, “Eye for an Eye”) and Kat (Lukita Maxwell, TV’s “Shrinking”).
It's no surprise Clark has been seeing psychiatrist Dr. Mary Kline (Reinsve), who recognizes both his self-destructive tendencies and his growing instability.
When Clark suddenly disappears, Mary begins searching for him and is pulled into a nightmarish alternate dimension of buzzing fluorescent lights, stained yellow walls, and endless corridors.
Once inside, both begin to realize they are not alone--and escaping this psychological labyrinth may be impossible.
Parsons clearly understands atmosphere and how to utilize empty space. The endless maze of yellow rooms becomes its own waking nightmare, all the flickering lights and stale carpeting that feels strangely damp even through the screen.
There's a claustrophobic quality to the setting that gives the film a strong "Twilight Zone" vibe, particularly in the way reality seems to bend in on itself without explanation. The Backrooms themselves are creepy enough to sustain genuine dread for long stretches, even when the narrative occasionally stalls out trying to connect all its ideas together.
The movie's strongest moments arrive when it fully commits to body horror and psychological unease. One especially nasty sequence--my favorite by the way-- involving Ejiofor and Reinsve seated at a table with a zombie-like figure is the kind of scene horror fans will either love or recoil from completely. Clark tears open one creature's stomach and matter-of-factly announces that "they are edible," and the scene becomes equal parts grotesque and hypnotic.
Parsons also creates an effectively disturbing central entity haunting the dimension-- a twisted mirror image of Clark dressed in his old "Captain Clark" mascot costume. It's a smart visual idea, as though the Backrooms themselves have absorbed Clark's failures, addictions, and bitterness and given them physical form.
Elsewhere lurk the so-called Lifeforms, hive-like predators made of black mold-like bacteria capable of mimicking human cries for help.
Still, for all its originality, "Backrooms" never entirely shakes the feeling that there should be something deeper at its center. The mythology is intriguing, but the film keeps hinting at larger ideas without fully exploring them, and the ending lands more as frustrating than haunting. I wanted more from the experience than the movie ultimately delivers.
Even so, it's hard not to admire the ambition on display here. Parsons is only 20 years old and already shows an impressive visual command, and having
James Wan ("Insidious: Out of the Further") attached as a producer certainly suggests people in the industry see real potential in him.
"Backrooms" may not completely come together, but as a debut feature it announces a young filmmaker with a distinctive eye and a genuinely unsettling imagination.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Take A Look At This Trailer For
"BACKROOMS"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
