There are many ambiguous elements in the latest A24 distributed film, Backrooms, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons. The movie was extremely absorbing in its concept, and it was fun to see discussions among audience members right after the end credits rolled. Backrooms, in a way, is like those early Christopher Nolan films in which you figure out one layer and can clearly see that there are many more dimensions of that particular world that you haven’t really figured out on the first go. By revealing enough details to make us understand the rules of this particular dimension, this psychological thriller becomes one fun brain exercise.
Clark, the owner of a struggling furniture store, is one of our main characters. His wife had left him, and he sleeps in the shop because of financial liabilities. Clark attends therapy sessions with a therapist named Mary to deal with his current situation. Mary, on the other hand, is someone who has her own share of trauma to deal with. Things take an interesting turn when Clark finds out a secret space under his shop, which extends like a maze-like liminal space. What we see here are the efforts of both Clark and Mary to find out the truth of this new space.
There is no specific spoon-fed data here that gives us clarity on the rules of the Backrooms. Because of the foreshadowing that happens through the dialogues in Clark’s therapy sessions with Mary, and also those advertisements Clark tries to shoot for his shop, we can sort of understand that the Backrooms is, in a way, a representation or mirror image of an individual’s mental state. Or one could say that the Backrooms has a certain inclination toward those who are in an extremely disturbed mental state. So, if you look at what happens with Clark and Mary when they enter the Backrooms, it gives us an idea of how it functions for each individual.
If you don’t know, Backrooms was originally uploaded to YouTube in 2022 as a web series in a found-footage format, and A24 picked it up after those videos became hugely popular. Kane Parsons has a very original voice here, and it is so great to see somebody as young as him trusting the audience with a complicated subject and treating it in a way that makes the audience a participant. In many ways, we are looking at the movie from Mary’s POV, and that sustains an element of curiosity throughout the film. Even though this movie has a much higher budget in comparison with Obsession, one can still see that indie sensibility in the craft, and the film never feels like a display of its budget.
There is a carefully designed randomness to this Backrooms dimension. From the predominant space we see in the movie to those brief glimpses of various rooms and unsettling corridors, the film gives you enough details to build a set of rules about the Backrooms in your head and have a healthy debate with those who saw the movie—or with yourself—after watching it. The cinematography follows the found-footage style for some parts of the movie, and you might find yourself tilting your head in all sorts of directions during those portions. In the cinematic bits, Kane Parsons uses those wide lenses to create unsettling imagery. I saw it on a flat-ratio screen with no black bars, and it was such an immersive experience, as the production design does a terrific job of building that new dimension.
Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the role of Clark in this movie. From the initial surprise to the eventual mental breakdown, Ejiofor does a fabulous job of portraying a character who is in denial about his failure. As I mentioned earlier, the audience’s real exploration begins when Mary decides to enter the Backrooms, and Renate Reinsve effectively conveys Mary’s dilemma and curiosity on screen. The performance never goes into an extremely animated space. But much like what she did in last year’s Sentimental Value, the internalized reactions work in favor of the film.
The YouTube web series created by Kane Parsons is available on his channel under the same name as the movie, and I feel watching it would help you a lot in understanding this mysterious space called the Backrooms. If you are someone who gets a high from interpreting ambiguous endings and connecting the dots, Backrooms will give you such a joyful cinematic hangover. It is the kind of film that you discover at your own pace as you backtrack or revisit it over time, and this review pretty much represents my first layer of understanding.
