3.5 out of 5 stars (above average)
I recently reviewed Obsession, a debut horror film made by a 20-something YouTuber-turned-filmmaker. Backrooms is another debut horror film from a 20-something YouTuber-turned-filmmaker, and despite 1 major gripe, I can proudly say that it and its creator are selling me on YouTube as a place for exciting fresh talent. Strong psychological tension, claustrophobic cinematography, eerie music, and 2 good performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve make Backrooms a mostly engrossing and bizarre nightmare that’s worth experiencing for genre fans.
The year is 1990. Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave, the Doctor Strange films) is the dejected manager of a furniture store that has as many customers when it’s open as it does when it’s closed. Though he’s attempting to work through his issues with therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), Clark desires more from his life. He seemingly gets that upon discovering a section of wall in the store basement is a portal to another world, an empty, endless labyrinth of unicolored rooms. To gain proof he’s not crazy, Clark recruits his employees Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and Bobby (Finn Bennett) to document his explorations, boarding nightmarish ride from which they cannot disembark.
I’m in awe that Backrooms is the debut film from a 20-year-old. The tense opening sequence provides just enough crumbs of intrigue, we get a good sense of who Clark and Kline are early on, and the film properly paces its scares out with occasional relief. The titular backrooms are a marvel of claustrophobic production design and the camerawork during the scenes there makes you as desperate as the characters to escape.
Director Kane Parsons (who uploaded shorts to YouTube based on the original creepypasta concept) refreshingly trusts our attention spans and interest in the material enough not to spoonfeed us answers, and while some may leave wishing a few more of them were provided, I think some of the scariest things in stories are what we Don’t fully understand and was happy the film stuck to its guns. The music by Parsons and Edo Van Breemen also reminded me of the Silent Hill games. Based on this film, I’d love to see Parsons take a crack at adapting one of those to the big screen.
Backrooms had me hooked on for much of its runtime, but slightly slipped up 2/3rds in. While it works for the characters, story, and scare factor, I don’t love how the mental health element is resolved in the 3rd act. The acting is still great, the tension high, and the film goes bananas in a good way, but it made me uneasy about recommending it to certain people because of its conclusion. However, if you’re a fan of psychological horror and can handle the mental health stuff, definitely see on the big screen with a crowd. While its last 3rd may go a bit too dark and bizarre for some, Backrooms is a confident, unsettling, and skin-crawling psychological horror film with strong performances that will make you wary of going down dark hallways just to see what’s there. See it!
Rated R for Language and Some Violent Content