the words weren’t mine

Backrooms got a theater full of teenagers to quietly and intently watch what may as well have been Battleship Potemkin (1925). They even clapped at the end.

I don’t mean that 20-year-old Kane Parsons’ feature debut is as good as Eisenstein. This is more-or-less a silent film. Parsons’ primary language here is visual—lots of canted angles, camcorders, and shadows cast by fluorescent lights. For those who don’t know the “lore” behind the Backrooms universe of images, videos, and games, the idea is the horror of the endless office. Its origins are in a 2019 4chan post. Imagine bleak, yellowish hallways that bend into a maze, random lamps, couches, and tables stacked and strewn in indiscernible ways. Clocks tick, footsteps fall—from where? Who can say? Backrooms is far more like The Haunting (1963) than another entry in The Conjuring franchise (2013-present).

There are easily 10- and 15-minute sections of this film without any dialogue, often with minimal music. If someone barely old enough to vote can get kids not old enough to vote to sit through and enjoy that kind of silence, I will not protest. I’m delighted to see the movie make nearly $200 million on a $10 million budget. Somebody give this kid more money. read more

IMAGE: Billy Dosanjh