Let's talk about A24's BACKROOMS

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Hey everyone, welcome to the channel.

[00:00:01]Today we are talking about Backrooms from director Kane Parsons. This is an A24 horror sci-fi production and this is one of the most visually striking films you will probably see all year. The visuals in this film are incredibly interesting and they're not like overblown. These visuals aren't sort of these things of, oh wow, that really must have been expensive. It's good visual storytelling. It's interesting spatial design, real commitment to practical set design, and really eerie, kooky atmosphere. The plot of Back Rooms, or the general setup for back rooms, is that a guy named Clark, who owns a furniture store, discovers in the basement that there is a portal to what feels like another dimension. It's this other space, this liinal space where it feels like this weird mimic, this weird strange duplication of realworld sort of office spaces. That's the best way to explain it. You you like go through this portal. It's just these weird strange uncanny empty rooms just as far as the eye can see. There's no looping back. It just goes on and on and on forever. Any door you opens up more doors and more doors. The one thing I need to drive home is on a technical level, this film is remarkably impressive. Whether or not this director was 20 years old, this is a remarkable technical achievement. It looks incredible. It sounds incredible.

[00:01:22]The whole thing feels just very, very real and tangible and very immersive.

[00:01:28]What I really also like about this horror movie is it feels like it could be one of those movies where it's just kind of teasing you the whole time for not much reward. I will say I wasn't in love with the pacing in the buildup to the climax, but the climax itself really just goes for it. It goes for broke. It feels like, okay, this is why I paid $20 to go see this at a movie theater rather than just watching a YouTube video version. You know, the YouTube videos that inspired this film, there is genuine spectacle and payoff to behold if you stick with this film. And the reason I say if you stick with this film is unfortunately I did find the character work incredibly clunky and kind of distracting whenever this film is focused on the character if you will of the back rooms. You know, focusing on this weird dimension, this weird strange other side of this portal in a wall and how it operates and the rules of this world and what it's doing and how it gets these designs and all this stuff.

[00:02:23]All right, it the back rooms themselves start to feel like a character, start to feel like a living entity throughout the movie. And piecing that together was really, really fun. But what wasn't particularly fun was piecing together the characters backtories.

[00:02:36]Unfortunately, there are a lot of moments where the writing is really quite clunky and underdelled. Most notably, our lead character Mary is a therapist and Clark is one of her patients. the store owner, right, is also a patient of this character named Mary. Their dialogue together feels like when children are playing dress up and pretending to be mommy and daddy or something, you know, like it it just doesn't feel true to life at all. It doesn't feel like real adult characters.

[00:03:05]There's a lot of conversations and dialogue throughout this movie where it just is kind of not quite right. And again, if that was happening in the back rooms down below, I'd 100% be like, "Yep, awesome." But unfortunately, it's happening up above where things are meant to be relatively normal. But with that criticism aside, what I really loved is in the set design. Yeah, the back rooms pop the [ __ ] off. All right, the set designer went nuts. Even up above, the way shots are framed, the way things are framed, the way characters are framed, it all has this really surreal, uncanny vibe. Even up above, it's consistently eerie and strange and off-putting and off-kilter. So you have all these conversations in the real world that also feel strange, also feel not quite right. And I really enjoyed that vibe to the film. And one thing that really filled me with hope was Oscar nominee Chuel Edgio for being in this film was Renardo Renve. Oscar nominee Renardo Renvey, you know, Palm Dior winner recently, Ronaldo Rensve. I could not wait to see them take this sort of like internet culture material super seriously. Unfortunately, and I don't think it's a performance issue because they are both fantastic actors and actresses, but I do think it's a bit of a writing issue. There are line deliveries and just lines in general that I think no one could have made good. It's really, really unfortunate because when this movie locks in and gets things right, it absolutely gets things right. Right. the opening section, the found footage section, which yeah, we've seen cold opens done with found footage what, 50,000 times before, but this manages to feel fresh.

[00:04:35]Again, the set design of the back rooms is just so hypnotizing that you can't help but be swept up and you want to see what's behind a corner, but then you're also kind of spooked. So, all of that was great. The actual exploration of the back rooms themselves were fantastic, but I was consistently in this sort of push and pull where I'm like, I wish I knew more about this character or if anything, I wish I knew less about this character. And the basic way I can summarize this is, you know, how on one end you have say Interstellar, right?

[00:05:03]Interstellar from Christopher Nolan is very much interested in making sure we understand these characters, we connect with their emotions, and that will help elevate the film we're experiencing.

[00:05:13]where 2001 of space odyssey the characters are very intentionally emotionally cold and detached and we don't know much about them and instead we project our own emotions onto them.

[00:05:22]It almost functions as a silent film for a lot of it. Right. My main issue with the back rooms is for a lot of its runtime it feels like it's veering into space odyssey territory where it's just you're projecting your own feelings onto the situation. You're soaking up the atmosphere and the atmosphere is wonderful. You're soaking up the vibe but then occasionally it feels like another film is knocking on the door, right? more interstellar coded where it's like actually these characters do have emotions and do have character beats and do have stuff you're meant to be thinking about and unfortunately I think the characters were ultimately not particularly well drawn out and the reason I say this is because towards the end there are meant to be some emotional gut punches to an extent or there are characters facing off and I was sitting there thinking to myself I just wish I knew more about either of you know I can put this stuff together on paper but at the same time like I wish I was more attached unfortunately there was a moment where I was thinking thinking to myself, if these characters live, if these characters die, if these characters escape the back rooms, I'm kind of going to feel the same. I'm not really particularly rooting for anyone.

[00:06:21]And unfortunately, I don't feel particularly emotionally connected to anyone, which is a shame. But yeah, there's just some lines here that don't quite work. But I will say if you saw the trailer and you're interested in Back Rooms, if you are a fan of the Back Rooms internet series, if you're into the law, I think this movie is really going to give you a kick. I think you're really going to enjoy this movie. get through some slow chunks and maybe some clunky dialogue here or there because the spectacle of the back rooms itself just gets better and better and better throughout the film. So, in order to talk about the things I love and the things I didn't love, we're going to have to talk about spoilers. So, 3 2 1 spoilers. Now, if you're enjoying this video, please consider getting a membership to this channel. For the cost of a couple dollars a month, you get access to a weekly podcast where I talk about every single Shan movie I've watched in a given week. That's stuff off the shelf, stuff off streaming, stuff at the movies I don't have time to cover on the main channel. Really helps out the channel. Thank you so much for considering. And back to the video. So, now I can really get into it. All right, we have this opening. We establish that Clark is a bit of I don't want to say loser. That sounds a little harsh, but yeah, he's going through a divorce. His store isn't doing particularly well. And I did really like at first that he was a bit of a layered character. He wasn't fully an [ __ ] But I guess what I was missing was really rooting for him or sympathizing him or really hating him.

[00:07:39]Just something, you know what I mean?

[00:07:40]Like in any direction would have been fine because when we catch up with him later when we find out that he went into the back rooms and then it almost seems like there's some time dilation like time moves quicker in the back rooms because when Mary Ronaldo Renz goes into the back rooms, he's already like the king down there. You know, he's built a little weird family and a little home and it's like, yeah, I can connect these dots. All right. He was talking about in his therapy session that he wanted to have autonomy of his house. You know, he wants to be the man of the house. So, it's like I can see that down here he's gaining a bit of a power kick, but I just would have loved a bit more interiority or a bit more tragedy to this fall, you know, like I would have loved to be seen there. Or on the other end, if we really didn't like him, this is a confirmation of the things we didn't like about him, his worst tendencies. But for a lot of the runtime early on in the film, I was kind of sitting there being like, "How am I meant to feel about this character? I don't really feel anything, if I'm being particularly honest. The therapy scene was distractingly sort of childishly written. That's the only possible way I can kind of explain it. I just really thought the writing between Mary and Clark was strange and felt like baby's first therapy session or it just wasn't quite right." So, when we get to the reveal that yeah, he's become this sort of like king down there. I just would have loved to have been shocked by him choking Mary out, I would have been loved to I would have loved to have been seen there being like, oh, there was hope for him, you know, there was hope for him to go to therapy and come out the other side and improve his life, but I just didn't get enough time with him being a normal person to really connect with him properly. Like I would have loved to have maybe had a sympathetic villain sort of character with him. You know, someone where at the start of the film, we see him try to socially connect and fails and we feel bad. Maybe he's almost like buying friends or offering people money to work at the store just so he has company, etc., etc. And then when we get down below, we watch as this backrooms almost this entity of the backrooms, but we watch as the backrooms allow him to indulge in his worst traits. You know, I'm not the one that needs to change. It was my wife. I'm not the one that needs to like look I've got this whole family like yes we get a little bit of it but I would have loved to really feel that emotional journey and feel like it's a shame. I would have loved to have been rooting for him to make good choices rooting for his therapy. You know maybe he even asks out Mary and gets rejected. Just something so I can really feel for this character and emotionally connect to this character. I didn't really feel anything for him before he goes on this odyssey and I was just kind of sitting there just being like okay that's happening now. That's the thing. When he chokes Mary out, I wasn't sitting there being like, "Oh my god, what the hell's going on?" I was just like, "Okay, this is happening." Like, I really think this film could have been elevated if we were rooting for him with his mental health journey and to make better choices and not give into this dark side and then spending time in the back rooms like really pivoted him towards that. You know, we really watched this the goodness of this man kind of get broken.

[00:10:37]But we didn't really have a great sense of who he was before this and after this. And yeah, I guess at the end of the day it's a confirmation of his worst impulses. Like I do get that part. But again, when they're having that exchange when Mary is saying to him, "You are weak and you do this and you whine.

[00:10:52]That's your issue." It's sort of just like, "Yeah, okay. I guess I'll take your word on it." Sort of thing. Which is a shame because I actually think once we get past the really clunky scene where Mary and Clark have this sort of like redo of their therapy earlier in the movie where he seemingly has more power and he's winning the exchange to an extent, whatever. whatever. Like, I didn't really like the writing in that scene. The moment where she kind of cracked it, you're a weak man, you're a [ __ ] you're this, you're that. Like, I wasn't really particularly feeling anything for either of these characters.

[00:11:21]And again, it kind of just sucked me out of it with this strange clunky dialogue.

[00:11:25]But once we get to the section where he's teaching her about how the back rooms work, how these people work, these weird, strange kind of misunderstandings of what people look like, and he's like, "You can even eat them." And you're like, "Oh my god, he's going to do cannibalism." But then you see the interior of these cloned weird strange people. It's almost like this squishy spongy foam stuff. So all of that I thought was really fantastic. And again to give the film credit, I do get the sense that obviously he's been down here for a while. He's indulged in his worst tendencies and it's exacerbated any mental issues he might have had. I just would have loved to have got a sense of his mental issues before going into the movie properly. I was a bit like how am I meant to feel about this character for a while? And that's sort of a similar thing with Mary. You know, I would have loved to have got any insight into any of her personal relationships or just how she feels about anything in general.

[00:12:16]You know, this film, weirdly enough, feels like the entire world up above is three people. I think that's the weird thing. There's not much of a contrast of the upper world compared to the back rooms because the upper world feels so empty and spacious. And on one end, that might feel intentional. Maybe there's meant to be this surreal vibe. Maybe the upper world is also a level of the back rooms. Whatever, right? Like maybe there is meant to be this feeling that up above is mirroring the back rooms. And I'll give the film credit for that. But unfortunately, I was just sitting there being like, "God, there's almost a masterpiece here. If I just cared about these characters more and just felt a bit more from what I was seeing because when I see the giant scary monstrous version of Clark show up, right, that ends up being the monster of the back rooms. If we had connected with that character properly, we would have been sitting there being like, "God, imagine realizing that you're the monster, right? This weird distorted clone is sitting there reflecting your worst tendencies and it's what everyone's feared of." And he he also recognizes, "Oh, people are scared of me." You get what I mean? Like, you could have had such interesting stuff, but before you know it, he's getting bitten on the neck before you can have any sort of interesting stuff around meeting a weird distorted clone version of you. Like, there's so much interesting material there. And ultimately, Unfortunately, at times this film does feel like a bit of like, okay, we saw that in Annihilation done a bit more introspectively. What I do like though is this idea that the back rooms are kind of this weird place that people can go to to indulge in their worst tendencies, right? Uh even though I wish the writing was beefed up, the idea that Clark goes down here and he gets this like hostage family and he gets to be the man of the house and he doesn't have to question any of his internal logic, etc., etc., that's all really cool. And I really love the ending, this idea with Mary, right? That if she goes down deep enough, we know that up top she's probably going to get wiped out by Phil or the company that Phil works for. But we see below that the back rooms has already started creating this cloned sort of strange mutilated version of her. And on top of that, the deeper down you go in these levels, there's actually remnants of this house she clearly has this massive emotional attachment to. So, in this weird way, if if if this clone version of her exists in the back rooms, it gets to have this weird, strange interaction with this house that the original Mary cares so much about. It's it's this weird, strange, suspended reality. And I thought that was really fascinating storytelling. I've also heard whispers that this whole back rooms thing is an allegory for dementia and the fragmented state of your brain when you have dementia and the way you kind of half piece memories together. That's all really cool. But even that aside, like I love this idea that you know up top the house is completely demolished and also Mary is probably going to be completely demolished. But if you go down searching enough in the back rooms, it's this place where this house that she clearly has this massive connection to can be immortalized along with her. And I think seeing that distorted vision of her down below was a really haunting visual. And again, I love how absolutely off the rails this film goes in its third act. I think some people are going to really disengage from it. But for me, that's kind of where I sat up in my seat and went, "Okay, we're really doing something." For a while in back rooms, I was sitting there being like, "Okay, what am I getting that I couldn't have been getting on like a YouTube video?"

[00:15:32]But when we get that third act and it just really goes off the rails with the giant version of Clark and the incredible visuals and it goes nuts with the set design. You know that scene where Mary is in that like seemingly apartment complex over this massive massive sort of giant chasm and you're like where the hell is this going? And then there's a point where she goes up into a recreate version of the street.

[00:15:54]And I really like the lack of answers too. We get just a little just a tidbit but but not enough to remove any mystery, you know. So overall, I like this film a fair bit, but I did find it a tough watch. It's not a full solid confident recommendation, but if you're interested in it, I think it's well worth your time. Again, if you are interested in it. Thank you so much for watching everyone. Please like, comment, subscribe. Please consider gain a membership if you enjoyed this video.

[00:16:18]Thank you.