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Listening to: Looping the Rooms by rusino, featuring Hatsune Miku. I wish this song was longer sometimes -v-
Warning: This post has explicit spoilers for the Backrooms movie.
Today, I watched the Backrooms directed by Kane Parsons with my family today! On the way to the theater, me and my older sister discussed what we knew about the Backrooms. Here's what we got:
— The Backrooms originated as a forum post. As far as it went, it was simply the idea of 'noclipping' (as the original post states) into a place you are not meant to be in.
— The Backrooms isn't a particular IP that belongs to one person. I clarified to my sister that interpretations such as the "Level" systems pertain to the wikidot version of the Backrooms. We were aware that this was the Kane Parsons interpretation of the Backrooms, but weren't really sure what that entailed.
— The director is 20 years old.
— We knew that it was horror / rated R.
Essentially, we went into the movie blind and without much expectations for it. I read the synopses right before we entered the showing, and I was surprised to see it took a psychological approach. And I really liked it! Before I get ahead of myself though, I want to acknowledge the design and composition of the movie before I get into the writing.
Firstly, people were not kidding about the set design. It was wonderfully built, and had many rooms that felt nondescript yet familiar. It captured the passing 'liminal' feeling very well while personalizing it to the main characters Clark and Mary with reused props from their shared spaces. I particularly loved the scene that procedurally reduced a room into a maimed version of itself.
Secondly, and this is less talked about, but I loved the sound design and soundtrack for this movie. I could definitely pick out notable stock sounds, such as the doors. It did pull me out of the movie for a second, but it's so quick it doesn't mean much to my experience holistically. Do what you gotta do with your budget, man. The remainder of sounds that they use are harrowing, especially the audio tracks that play multilingual greetings. You don't ever expect anything in the Backrooms to say anything back to you.. Except it does! Constantly! Very horrifying. I like the concept.
The soundtrack is headache inducing, for lack of a better word, and I mean that in the best way. I'd have to give it a listen again just to pick out what really made my gut feel like it dropped, but the cacophonous sound of static and incomprehensible talking, again, nailed the feeling of not belonging anywhere. Get back to me on this, I feel like I have to experience with headphones to pick out certain things.
Now, to address the writing: I've made it clear I love psychological themes in a previous blog post, so to say I loved Backroom's approach is to be expected.
Among this incomprehensible maze of rooms is a conflict between two people; So menial, yet abnormal given their circumstance. The Backrooms allows these two characters, Clark and Mary, to address their struggles in such an unusual manner! What ties them back to the Backrooms as a whole is their struggle of belonging and isolation, which reveals itself in the form of the Backrooms.
My sister interpreted the Backrooms as a manifestation of a memory that can never be let go, functionally trapping them into that behavior of repetition or the path of least resistance, hence the risk of being lost in the Backrooms.
To build upon that, both Clark and Mary quite literally lost the spaces they once belonged in: Clark being that he lost his property to his wife, while Mary - while somewhat implicit - faced eviction from what I presume after her mother fell to mental illness. The loss of this place they had once belonged had set these characters up to desolate themselves in the Backrooms, aka a mental state they could never get out of.
Of course, that's my (and my sister's!) interpretation of it. I do love that the viewer has to synthesize what they think the Backrooms is. It can mean whatever you want it to mean.
And seeing how the character's act themselves, hooh man, are they messy. Clark makes it evident at the start of the movie, and I love how he admits he doesn't want to get better. He wants to stay in the Backrooms - that fuckass mindset that's kept him comfort for too long! It's a natural progression for a character that has already begun to lose it all. He doesn't feel wholly malignant, but he's definitely a character that has gone off the deep end. Ultimately, he's just a fucked up guy.
Mary's character is subtle, seeing that she acts as the role of a therapist. Her past isn't explicitly addressed either and instead, fed through bits and pieces because she never addresses it. As my sister claimed, Mary is the performative type, and I wholly agree. I like that the movie chose to frame Mary as a person with flaws, given she snaps at Clark for being so difficult and admits there's nothing she can do to help.. Which leads to her spiraling and realizing that she can't help anyone fully; A subtle callback to the mental struggles of her mother. Like damn!!?
To add onto this, you spend a lot of time with these characters in an uncomfortable manner. There's a lot of time spent just.. sitting and observing Clark's therapy session as a third party, or their explorations among the Backrooms that leave you afraid from when they'll get murked by something in the hallways.
Props to the actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve for putting on great performances. Really good thousand-yard stares.
One last thing: The monsters in the Backrooms. Good grief. They had my other older sister squirming in her chair out of fear (her palms were really sweaty when she crushed my hand..) and the VFX were applied nicely! Though, I suppose I can't say much on that, but they do feel very unreal on the humanoid creatures specifically.
There's also the matter of Clark and Mary's manifestations in the Backrooms. One of the main things I've heard when addressing Clark's monster specifically is that he looked goofy. And while I do agree to a point, I'm inclined to think it was intentional to show this version of Clark in such oppressing light, and why he remains a pirate. As the movie explains, the Backrooms remembers everything, just not quite right. I think Clark remains in that ridiculous persona because that's all he will ever be remembered as: A bumbling man in a flimsy pirate suit, desperate for sales, desperate to be seen. It's kind of sad.
Applying that same logic to Mary in the final frame of the movie, while it parallels her current position, I think there's also a lot to be said about the Backroom's memory of her. She's shrouded in darkness, disfigured with eyes multiplied and elongated and fingers protruding out of her palms. But she stays seated; Completely stagnant. I'm inclined to think that must deal with her idea that she is helpless and does not possess any initiative like she so hopes. She is most likely remembered as someone who has the possibility to help, but never does anything.
Again, just shoehorning things into the movie, but there's so many unexplained variables in the movie, it allows for this type of interpretation. Thanks Parsons for a movie that'll stay in my mind for awhile.
One thing about the movie I could say could've needed some work, as I do try to pick out what I like and don't like about something, is that some of the dialogue felt odd - Even repetitive sometimes. There were a lot of times where it shined however, and I do like the callbacks to previous scenes. I'm moreso talking about the wishy washy ideas Mary presents about Clark addressing his problems, but that could be more of a concept I didn't follow. Not really sure how to pin it, but the dialogue just felt a smidge bit unnatural at times. I do hope the screenplay eventually releases so I can give it a look.
All in all, I enjoyed the Backrooms movie a lot, and it definitely reminded me to rewatch Kane Parsons' Youtube series. I feel so old :') I remember watching the very first video during.. I believe quarantine? Seeing that ASYNC logo definitely made me recall the hard work that this dude must've put to make it this far. The kids are alright, and I hope more amazing works follow the Backrooms' breakthrough into the mainstream. Always rooting for indie!!