Backrooms

Definitely a thinker. The cinematography was off the charts, and the way shots lingered was Lynchian and added to the uneasiness of the experience. The lighting and shots were phenomenal and were a large driving force in making any of the atmosphere in the Backrooms work. The suspense and build up of the environment were nice, and the environment felt downright claustrophobic. Really honed in on the sense of the movie. The found footage scenes were some of the best in the whole movie, and you can see Kane Parson’s style from the web series all over these particular scenes. The scene w Clark ending up in the room with the Christmas tree was especially scary, & the image of the copy of Mary in the Backrooms really sat with me. The overarching idea that the Backrooms is an amalgamation of memories and things that we ourselves don’t remember properly is such an interesting and cool idea. The idea makes my skin crawl, and aptly does so in the movie. I won’t lie, I was a little disappointed actually seeing the monster so clearly in the end, it was definitely freaky but after seeing it, it just kinda looked goofy. The way the first 2/3rds of the movie obscure the creatures within the Backrooms and leave it up to imagination make it so much scarier than actually seeing the creature. That being said, I still liked the designs of the creatures overall, and how they add to Kane’s existing Backrooms lore. I think being exposed to David Lynch has really given me an appreciation for lingering shots. The use of them here was quite nice in setting the tone and eeriness of the movie, however, I will say that in terms of pacing and plot it was on the slower side. This was definitely a film where the plot/horrors are more implied and are something that you come to interpret yourself, so I’m gonna have to come back to these thoughts after I’ve thought about it a bit more. Overall giving it a 4/5, the execution of the atmosphere and shots alone push it over the edge for me, and while the plot was a bit confusing for me I think there’s more to be said here once I can peel back behind the faded yellow wallpaper.