On May 29, the movie Backrooms came out in theatres everywhere. This movie is based on the famous game produced by Kane Pixels in 2022. The 9-minute-long video he made on YouTube blew up, which led him to direct this movie through the company A24. This movie has been criticized since its release, but I strongly believe that this film, despite the backlash, was inspiring.
This movie follows the main character, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), on his healing journey after a tough divorce from his wife. He got help from his therapist, Dr. Kline (Renate Reinsve), who searched for him in the backrooms before she got trapped herself. She was healing from her old trauma with her mom, which I wish the movie delved into more. However, I feel like the vagueness keeps the audience wondering, which is the point of a psychological movie: how she was affected and what her life would be like if she hadn’t become a therapist and tried to better herself. It is left up to our interpretation whether she escaped the backrooms or not, because at the end of the movie, it showed her “clone” left in the backrooms.
Many people claimed that it was confusing, and it wasn’t a real horror movie. This movie was a psychological horror film, and in my opinion, it was more realistic than a typical slasher film. It’s your brain that is being tricked, not a murderer coming to chase after you. I believe that the theme of the movie was that people who don’t want to change will forever be stuck in their own minds (“backrooms”). Each of the characters was trapped in their own loop of regrets. The main character wanted to become an architect, but he didn’t. Once he got sucked into the backrooms, he realized it was better than fixing his problems in his real life. He could craft his life to whatever he wanted.
This movie explores the idea that you may be able to forget about trauma or temporarily escape it, but in reality, it can never leave you. These “backrooms” are almost familiar parts of the brain you forgot existed. I love this movie because it lets you think about the deeper meaning. I really enjoyed the movie, and I would recommend that anyone watch it.
The director, Kane Parsons, claims that the movie represents the fact that humans are not ready for the complete urbanization of our culture. It is confining us in a box. This idea can correlate with the fact that we don’t want to change as people, and it will lead to confusion, like the backrooms. I think this movie came from something we are experiencing as a society. The movie said, “You ask someone who has never seen a dog to draw a dog,” which encapsulates exactly what the backrooms feel like. It is confusing.
One of my favorite things about this movie was the soundtrack. The sounds that they chose went along with the “TikTok” soundtrack that has been associated with the game Backrooms for years. For example, the song “Still Life” encapsulates the eerie feeling of the movie. It has a low and echoey tone to it.
Overall, this movie was one of the best I have ever seen because it lets the audience decide how it should end. It has a deeper meaning than typical horror movies.
