Backrooms
***1/2 out of ****
Directed by Kane Parsons
Written by Will Soodik
Based on ”Backrooms” web series created by Kane Parsons
Produced by James Wan, Michael Clear, Robert Patino, Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, Osgood Perkins, Chris Ferguson, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Kori Adelson
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell.
It’s always exciting to see a young talent emerge in a big way, especially in a genre that gets less respect in Hollywood. Such is the case of 20-year old Kane Parsons who shows a lot of talent, ambition, and style with this debut film. ”Backrooms” may be the most mysterious pop culture phenomenon to come out in a long time, thanks in large part to Parsons’ creativity and surprising skill.
The film opens with a sequence that is presumably reminiscent of the popular web series, in which an unnamed character is holding a handheld VHS camcorder and being pursued by a unseen force that lurks in the space behind him. The footage is dated 1990 and the footage is authentically created using the photographic technology of the day. The Backrooms look like an empty office space with a desk that has a HAM radio and other old-school tech on a desk. The camera operator attempts to call some one on the radio with no answer. Then we hear a growl behind him and the camera shakes uncontrollably as he turns around and sees a shadow lurking just around the corner. The only logical question that pops up is why would he be filming at a time like this? But then again if he didn’t we wouldn’t have the mystery to ponder about the setting.
Parsons begins his film with this sequence, no doubt, to excite the fans of the series. He knows his audience well. I saw this film with a fan and he was totally excited by the disorienting footage and terror of the approaching unseen force.
The main story picks up with Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) a struggling furniture store owner who can barely make it through his taped commercial shoot, dressed as and impersonating a pirate, without tripping over his own furniture. His employees are very patient with him as he desperately tries to convey the next big sales tactic. Something unexplained is happening with the power in his store and he begins spending the night in it to figure what goes on when no one is there.
Then he discovers a shimmer in the wall next to a breaker box in the basement and slips through it into the Backrooms. The setting, as previously stated, resembles an old and empty, neverending office space with dull fluorescent lighting, truncated furniture, elongated hallways, and plain walls.
Clark tells his therapist (Renate Reinsve) about what he’s seen and is met with skepticism. She thinks they’re at the core of a more deeply rooted psychological issue and that’s there’s no way the Backrooms can exist as Clark describes them. Boy, does she have a shocking surprise in store.
Bakcrooms has more going for it than either the plot or its basis on a web series might suggest. The thing that makes the setting so fascinating is the very things that make it appear unattractive. It’s vast emptiness reveals endless puzzles and mysteries for each of its characters, both physical and psychological. It’s a particularly mysterious soundscape which, all at once, is filled with ambience, the buzzing of the fluorescents, quiet voices, growls, and noiseless footsteps.
Visually, we see an array of random pieces of furniture half sunk into the floor and piled up to the ceiling in various spaces. Some corridors are fully lit while other darkened except by shafts of light from another room. Objects of every kind seem to pop up in the oddest places as though they’re put there by a tremor in the participant’s mind.
For that reason the characters face a challenge to their mental acuity because if they’re abstractly imagining this stuff then how can they stop it if it’s meant to be continuous?
I won’t dwell on the psychological angle which would literally spoil half the movie. It’s pretty clear that Parsons has consumed a lot of media in various forms over the years. His setting reminded me in particular of the 7 ½ floor in “Being John Malkovich” and the vastness of the Overlook Hotel in “The Shining”. He’s someone who knows to take inspiration and make his own unique thing out of it, which is what most of the best artists do. I look forward with anticipation to see what he does next.
