[2]
Backrooms started as an internet meme that turned into an open-source series of YouTube videos, video games, and a bunch of other crap that only GenZ give a shit about. I never wanted to see this movie because it sounded boring as fuck. I mean, who the hell wants to watch people wander around an infinite Ikea store for two hours? Is this what passes for horror these days? But when the film, directed by then-19-year-old Kane Parsons, opened to over $80 million in its opening weekend, I figured, “Maybe I can learn something about this weird, alien generation — this mindless, heartless horde of youth zombified by phones and TikTok — by seeing this movie they love.” So I saw the damned thing. And unfortunately, I’m more confused about GenZ than ever before, because Backrooms is an insufferable, half-assed art film wannabe that bored me to tears.
What’s it about? Well, Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) plays a furniture salesman who discovers a hidden door in the basement of his store that leads to an infinite series of oddly designed rooms. Sometimes the furniture is half-sunk into the floor, or a seagull will fly in out of nowhere — just for the sake of being creepy or scary. Oh, and the lights flicker. A lot. Approximately a quarter of the film is spent watching people go through these random, nonsensical rooms. I can’t remember the last time I was so bored at a movie.
Once Chiwetel becomes lost in this bullshit nonsensical realm beneath his store, his shrink (Renate Reinsve) goes in search of him. The tedious room-to-room exploration continues for a while, and then finally (thank God), the film remembers, ‘Oh, yeah, we should try and make some sense.’ When Reinsve unites with Ejiofor, the film begins to try and explain what the hell is happening, but it’s a lame attempt that only raises more questions instead of resolving anything. Then the aimless, pointless movie decides it needs to end. So a monster comes out, the same way Darth Vader did at the end of Rogue One, to try and make you forget how boring the previous two hours were.
To be fair, the identity of the monster is somewhat important (only somewhat). And the film does ultimately suggest that its odd, infinite architecture is a manifestation of an unwell mind (or two minds, or three, or more?). The film does have subtext and is arguably trying to say something meaningful. But it simply isn’t entertaining enough to make me want to invest in understanding it. It’s so boring, repetitious, and unmoored from any cogent reality that I simply do not care. The fact that the film only dabbles with explaining itself makes it all the more maddening. One might give credit to the directing, performances, production design, sound design, etc., but again — who cares when the film is this pointless and boring?
Backrooms is being called a pioneer film in a new so-called ‘liminal horror’ movement. I think the term is being used to justify shitty storytelling, allowing lazy artists to throw away all the rules and just fuck around on the big screen. I’m all for experimentation and new voices, but for God’s sake, you have to actually tell a story. It has to make some kind of sense. And it can’t be this dreadfully dull. If this is what ‘liminal horror’ is all about, I say we kill it in the crib.
With Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Mark Duplass.