Backrooms are, by viral creepypasta standards, a legendary phenomenon. From 4chan to subreddits on YouTube, photos of piss-yellow coins have drawn people into a liminal uprising of horror. But in 2022, YouTuber Kane Parsons, aka KanePixels, has become the leader of the Backrooms movement. With a few short films created in Blender and Adobe After Effects, Parsons redefined the nightmares that Backrooms could harbor and inspired a new generation of pasabilities.
This is the pedigree he brings to the A24s Behind the scenes adaptation, fittingly directed by Parsons.
The translation of forum-followed mythology and YouTube shorts to theaters was inevitable, but A24 was right to put Parsons in charge. At just 16 years old, Parsons had tens of millions of fans addicted to short clips of ambiguous found footage depicting random explorers lost in the Backrooms, as well as a company, Async, dedicated to Backroom research. But this isn’t YouTube and Hollywood isn’t a kid’s playground. Parsons had a lot to prove Behind the sceneswhich turned out to be an impressive achievement for a teenager’s first feature film.
Impressive, but not without problems that obstruct the overall flow of empty, menacing spaces and psychological torment.
Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, the alcoholic and divorced owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, a struggling furniture store. His therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), urges him to take responsibility for his life, but Clark prefers to wallow in self-pity alone. Then, one night, he comes across a false wall in the basement of his store that leads to a vast, seemingly endless collection of pieces that aren’t on anyone’s plans. Clark begins to map the new area, finding darkness everywhere, but soon realizes that these “backstages” are no escape from his problems – and that they are more dangerous than they let on.
Parsons is focused on his Backrooms sequences. The film opens with a slight homage to his very first video, what with the camera tracking blur and all. Then, as Clark digs deeper, he brings in employee Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and her boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett), who have the same VHS-quality recorder. They travel through a liminal slaughterhouse of broken memories; rooms filled with distorted Christmas morning, wet sewage pool areas, or entire abandoned neighborhoods. The production hands have built over 30,000 square feet of labyrinthine Backrooms, and the whole thing looks monstrous. Parsons delivers on the uneasiness that awaits you in the adventures of Backrooms, but on a larger scale, thanks to a real budget.
However, the film has a problem. Writer Will Soodik collaborates with Parsons on a story that goes beyond just behind the scenes. Clark and Dr. Kline establish a conflicted relationship as patient and doctor, revealing the horrific mindset of a pathetic man who would rather labor in sorrow than live knowing that his utter mediocrity is a product of his own design. This fuels the Backrooms mythology, as Mark Duplass’ character introduces the looming presence of Async, spying in the background. Parsons Treats Behind the scenes as an existential manifesto about how our memories are always askew, which is a heavy subject – and yet his film feels fuzzy and light.
Light on momentum, light on inescapable fear and light on the conceptual unity of ideas that may seem contradictory.
In fact, you can count on the mentorship of certain producers, notably Oz Perkins. Parsons leans into the self-conscious unreality of Clark’s Backrooms exhibits with a lingering, slow-moving sensitivity. It’s a simmer that never boils, and drags on its duration of 110 minutes. My biggest fear was that Parsons and company would overcomplicate what makes Backrooms so intimidating—their amorphous nothingness—and that’s exactly what happens. Fleshing out the dimly lit story of A24’s Backrooms continuity, Parsons explains much of the creepier elements of the back room. While TikTok scrolls through late-night Backrooms videos and benefits from short bursts of morbid creativity, Parsons’ film attempts to be much more than a survival curiosity. It’s admirable, but it’s frustrating, tumbling into valleys as deep as the film’s haunting peaks are tall.
Behind the scenes it’s not a less-is-more scenario; it’s the opposite. And yet, Parsons turns out some beautifully strange pieces that made me dizzy with the hype of the fandom. Cinematographer Jeremy Cox slowly surveys every oblong or abstract corner of these “architectural on acid” rooms, whether shrinking ramps lead to tiny doorways, or a sense of MC Escher-like illusion invades your mind. There are also brutal reveals that favor interpretations of Backrooms, where despicable creatures are more prevalent. Parsons not only emphasizes his Behind the scenes the story, but what became popularized by a fandom hungry for more disjointed additions to the hazmat-clad canon.
So I’m somewhere in the middle Behind the scenes. Parsons deserves all the praise he’ll get: as a director, co-composer, and OG storyteller. But the experience is missing some more impactful equipment. It’s too long without guts, too listless at times, and there isn’t as good a command of combining entertainment with wacky philosophical screeds. It is that of the person who thinks Behind the scenesand yet it is not as precise or fleshed out as the approach suggests. I wish I had more enthusiasm to give – I too feel caught in a strange in-between.
Music from the film: 3/5
