Psychologically, there will always be something unsettling about being alone in a large space intended to play host to activity that isn’t happening and to people who aren’t there. It’s almost like these places shouldn’t exist unless there’s more than the hum of fluorescent lights to fill them. Backrooms, the debut feature from 20-year-old Kane Parsons, brilliantly keys in on the unease we feel when we enter areas that overwhelm with their stifling sense of vacancy. The decline of “third places” (a term for shared social environments besides one’s home or one’s workplace) was accelerated by the pandemic six years ago, though signs of communal fracture were in place before that. There are abandoned shopping malls, storefronts and, of course, movie theaters whose remaining function is the resounding reminder of what we’ve lost.
Set in San Jose in the early 1990s, Backrooms stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, the hard-pressed owner of discount furniture store Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire. Grimacing at the TV when ads for his competitor Big Wayne’s Furniture Barn come on, he dons a pirate outfit and makes employees Bobby (Finn Bennett) and Kat (Lukita Maxwell) shoot a commercial, but it seems unlikely to move the needle. Clark spills his guts about his business failings, dissolved marriage and alcohol troubles with his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve), who attempts to navigate him to better emotional surroundings. Drawn to the basement after closing his store one evening, Clark discovers an entrance to a hidden wallpaper-covered room that serves as a foyer for a seemingly unending amount of adjoining spaces. After spending excessive time in the extradimensional area, Clark’s absence from the outside world inspires Mary to go in and look for him.
Adapting from a 4chan-inspired web series he began in January 2022, Kane Parsons is working with a reported $10 million budget and puts every dollar of it to marvelous use. As one may expect from the title and premise, the set design of Backrooms is effectively the star of the movie. Working with production designer Danny Vermette, who has collaborated with Osgood Perkins on his three most recent films, Parsons visually renders liminal spaces eerie in their prolonged sense of abandon and uncanniness. Furniture and props are sunken into the floor and walls, as if they’re being devoured by the fluidity of time and the persistence of memory. In addition to Dalí homages, the incredible sets also recall the impossible architecture found in the work of graphic artist MC Escher. Along with visual effects and an off-kilter music score co-composed by Parsons, the movie connotes the crushing cosmic horror of occupying a realm impossible in its vastness.
In terms of the story that forefronts these creepy interiors, screenwriter Will Soodik has the unenviable task of not spelling out too much about the titular locale but not withholding too much information either. It’s a difficult balance that he mostly pulls off, although the in-session dialogue between Clark and Mary fast tracks character development that would be better shown and not told. As well-realized as the unnerving aesthetic of Backrooms is, the script could have benefited from a similar level of detail when fleshing out who these people are and what draws them into this limitless otherworldly chasm. Nevertheless, Academy Award nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve fill in the gaps nicely with a pair of performances percolating with fear of the unknown. Their tête-à-tête within the confines of a provisional dining room recalls the tense interactions between Jack and Wendy in The Shining.
As for more contemporary touchstones, Backrooms most frequently reminded me of Alex Garland’s Annihilation, following a group of imperiled scientists while investigating a zone called The Shimmer. The film also contains echoes of fellow A24 mind-bender Enemy, which sports a similar sickly shade of yellow cinematography and deals with protagonists attempting to break themselves from detrimental patterns. Whether or not Backrooms likewise concludes with an oversized spider cowering in the corner of a room, I’ll leave you to discover. It’s no secret that movie theaters have been more sparsely inhabited as studios desperately shuffle to try and fill auditoriums across the world. There’s harmonious irony in the fact that a movie set in an unending array of empty rooms could so thoroughly fill spaces designed to bring us together.
Score – 3.5/5
New movies coming to theaters this weekend:
Masters Of The Universe, starring Nicholas Galitzine and Camila Mendes, reboots the 1987 sword and sorcery film about a young man on Earth who discovers a secret legacy as the prince of an alien planet and must recover a magic sword to return home and protect his kingdom.
Scary Movie, starring Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans, reboots the horror parody franchise in which two friends once again find themselves caught up in mayhem involving killers, monsters and supernatural creatures.
Power Ballad, starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas, is the latest musical drama from John Carney in which a washed-up wedding singer and a fading boy band star create a song during a late-night jam session that the latter turns into a pop hit.
Reprinted by permission of Whatzup