I really enjoyed BACKROOMS. I can see straight away it’s not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, it’s going to be divisive, split opinion. It’s not terrifically scary and the premise is pretty far fetched, which locks out a lot of people who like their horror to be grounded in reality. BUT.
The set design was extraordinary. It felt like the backrooms went on forever. A very clever mix of actual sets and CG extensions, seamlessly done so it was impossible to tell where the real thing ended and the pixels began.
It reminded me of a nightmare, where the logic of space doesn’t make sense. Tiny doors at the end of ever decreasing corridors, holes in the floor, incongruous objects half in and half out of the carpet or wall. A healthy dash of ALICE IN WONDERLAND gone very wrong. It also reminded me of real world places I’ve been in — weird American warehouse shops that seem to go on forever, or dank and dark disused offices that we’ve taken over to use as film production offices.
I didn’t bring much baggage to it in that I’ve seen maybe one of Kane Parsons’ original YouTube videos and I’ve no idea about the online “lore” of the backrooms and how the film interacts with that stuff. What I will say: the design of the backrooms felt original to me, like nothing I’ve seen in the movies before. Which is really saying something. The designer Danny Vermette deserves an Oscar — seriously.
Also: I loved the music, and the sound design. Co-written by Kane Parsons according to the credits. Really cool.
