Backrooms

This review may contain spoilers. “If you hear something, start praying.” This movie’s premise is astounding. It’s such a cool idea that was executed terribly. The movie made one crucial mistake: it focused on the wrong thing. What makes the Backrooms cool? The Backrooms themselves. The characters should’ve been used as plot devices to get us deeper into the rooms, with the rooms being the central idea. Instead, the movie focuses more on the characters than the rooms. We go in-depth into Clark’s personal life issues, follow the therapist’s backstory, and sit through other side plots, none of which really add to the core concept of the story. This movie should’ve had more of a Maze Runner-type structure. I wanted a group of people exploring the rooms — mapping them out, naming the monsters, figuring out their hunting patterns and the way they think, then trying to go deeper. Maybe one of them gets lost and the group has to find them. Sudden jump scares, main characters getting killed as they descend further, moments where they have to leave someone behind — that’s what the movie needed. Another issue I had was the monsters. They shouldn’t have been humanoid creatures. It should’ve been something more abstract or terrifying, like a Siren Head-type entity. The humanoid monsters just didn’t work, and honestly looked kind of silly. The best part of the movie was Clark and his two employees exploring that section of the Backrooms. That sequence was awesome. The exploration felt genuinely unsettling, the VHS camera added tension, and you were constantly on edge. Then one of the guys sees something, and you instantly get nervous. They pull him out and you feel relief — then he gets dragged back in and suddenly you’re stressing again. That entire middle sequence was perfect. If the whole movie had maintained that atmosphere, it genuinely could’ve been a five-star film. The idea itself is perfect, but they approached it in what feels like the worst possible way. The cinematography, though, is incredible. The movie looks gorgeous and captures the vibe and emotion of the Backrooms perfectly. Easily the highlight of the film. This movie could become much better in retrospect if they make another film in the same universe with different leads exploring the Backrooms. They could come across some of the same areas from this movie, which would make this feel more like setup. If that’s the plan, and the sequel delivers, this movie could age really well. But right now, it’s very disappointing. I expected so much more.