BACKROOMS

Backrooms hits all the right spine tingling notes as Kane Parsons’ feature directorial debut balances strong world building and effective scares to create a terrifying horror vision worthy of the big screen.

Not only has the horror genre in recent years seen impressive directorial debuts leading to some of the most twisted and nightmare inducing films, the genre has also seen many YouTubers making the jump to feature film making. With highs from Curry Baker in this year’s Obsession to more disappointing efforts like Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks, it’s been an exciting time for both horror fans and YouTube fans watching these new voices enter the realm of filmmaking. Now joining them is Kane Parsons, or online known as Kane Pixels, in his impressive feature debut Backrooms, based on the YouTube videos that made him an internet sensation. While only twenty years old, Parsons directorial efforts are evident in Backrooms as he creates an immersive experience that instantly gets under your skin and is bolstered by the endless talents of Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor, even if the screenplay’s need to explain the mystery at the centre of the film counteracts the unnerving terrors of the unknown titular Backrooms.

Starting off the film with a found footage based sequence, Parson begins to tease the terror that he is about to conjure up on screen, and it's an incredibly effective hook for the film. Found footage is tricky as the longer it is used, the gimmick effect of it decreases, but not only does Parsons use it for the exact right amount of time, he does a great job in giving the viewers the crash course of the small amount of information about the titular Backrooms for what follows to play out logically while preserving the mystery of the film’s main question: what is the Backrooms? Combining shaky camera footage, low grade 90s video camera imagery, and a terrified scientist trying to learn about the secrets of the Backrooms, only to find himself caught in the crossfire of its dangers, Parsons starts the film out on a strong note with a heart pounding intensity before shifting the focus to the characters that will become the central focus of the film.

Will Soodik’s screenplay roots itself in themes of past trauma, troubled relationships and inner emotional turmoil, all of which are ideas familiar to the horror genre, using them to drive the characters’ personal arcs as they discover the terrors lurking in the Backrooms. It’s not the most complex narrative, but it does the trick in propelling Ejiofor’s Clark and Reinsve’s Mary forward through the film. As he introduces their characters to the Backrooms, the mystery and danger of it remains looming, a true asset to the film as every venture into them is full of suspense and an unexpected hesitation of what is to be encountered around the next corner. Largely from the point of view of Clark, the immense labyrinth of the Backrooms begins to show itself as Clark and his co-workers explore it, teasing both the monster within and the much larger reach of the Backrooms than just Clark’s discount furniture store. This largely silent worldbuilding created by simple exploration and discovery and a thrilling second act set piece where Parsons' directorial efforts once again shine, prove that sometimes within the horror genre saying less is far more effective in creating dread within viewers.

But, the film stumbles narratively in the third act, though never enough to derail Parsons’ inspired vision. Shifting the audience’s point of view from Clark to Mary, there is lots the audience does not know about Mary that makes her character’s motivations slightly muddled, making it feel like there were vital scenes to give more depth to her left on the cutting room floor. The lure of the Backrooms remains strong, drawing Mary and the audience into it for the final set piece, featuring the most unsettling sets of the film as Mary comes face to face with the danger within the Backrooms. Starting off with one blood curdling character encounter before becoming a high speed chase through the Backrooms at the film’s climax, which is both an exhilarating and freaky set piece to experience, the final act is no doubt an exciting close to the film. Though after this set piece in the film’s final minutes, the story shoots itself in the foot and loses the secrecy that kept audiences immersed in the mysteries of the Backrooms. As Soodik begins to give some basic answers about the Backrooms, this explanation dampens Parsons’s unnerving terror as the convoluted answers that simultaneously say too much and not enough about the Backrooms itself add little context to what the Backrooms actually is, there is a severe loss of the inexplicable terror of the Backrooms that drove the film to this moment. Had the film ended four minutes earlier, teasing the fate of Mary without explaining anything, it would have been a much stronger ending that would have kept the tension high within viewers while leaving the explanation for what is most likely an inevitable sequel, where Soodik’s writing would have the proper time and space to truly begin to explain the unexplainable Backrooms.

Most horror movies are built around an iconic monster or killer, and while Backrooms has a dangerous entity in it, it is not the horror element driving the film. That honour belongs to the mysterious titular Backrooms itself, an endless maze of rooms that have an instant eerie quality thanks to the unsettling yellow wallpapering, endless corridors that seem to never end, and each unnatural element contained within. The practical set construction gives a fully realized world for Parsons and his cast to play in, helping to build both the mystery of the story and the immersive feeling of the entire production as Parsons ensnares the audience’s senses. Combined with simple but unnatural set design, such as large clusters of items stacked together in the middle of a room, objects appearing where they should not be, or objects defying reality and presenting as stuck within the rooms themselves without damage, the visual world that Parsons and his production design and set decoration teams creates does the majority of the film’s narrative world building effortlessly and sets the audience on edge so that the ultimate destination of the story can truly leave them shaking in their seats. It’s only amplified by the film’s sound design which uses the silence of the Backrooms and amplifies the hum of the lighting and the sounds of the creature within it to ensure there is a constant and tension throughout, reminding audiences of a simple truth of the horror genre: sometimes less is scarier than excess.

Parsons’ vision is clear and Soodik’s screenplay does a solid job in translating that to the screen, but it is the performances of Ejiofor and Reinsve that really sell the film. Two of the most talented actors working today, their presence elevates the entire film and gives depth to their characters and the writing. Ejiofor captures the fractured emotional state within Clark with a pain-striking honesty, finding both the hurt as his marriage has collapsed and his business is struggling, and the anger that not only caused the end of his relationship but drives him as an individual. In one chilling scene in the third act, Ejiofor delivers the most unforgettable moment of the film that not only leaves audiences emotionally conflicted as they can’t help but sympathize with the distraught state Clark finds himself in, while being in utter terror of what his emotions have driven him to become. Reinsve, while having less time to develop Mary in the first two acts, carries a strength to her throughout the film that galvanizes her character, creating a worthy heroine to go up against the horrors of the Backrooms while giving some great scream queen facial looks.

There is no doubt going to be a generation of movie goers who claim that Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is their favourite horror movie of the year, as his fans are going to eat up every second of the big screen expansion of his hit YouTube series. Even though for the more seasoned horror fan the film never will reach that height, what does unfold in Backrooms is without question an unsettling feature film debut from Parsons that marks another exciting filmmaker to the roster of young filmmakers pushing the boundaries of the genre today. Built around an intentional restraint of how far the story explores the Backrooms while leaving the endless possibility of what could exist there looming, resulting in the audience holding their breath in utter terror, Parsons displays talents as a storyteller far beyond his age and teases great things to come from him in the future. With outstanding set construction and production design that achieves unnerving world building immediately in the first scene, Kane Parsons’ vision for Backrooms results in a dread filled and uncomfortable movie going experience that is only elevated by the excellent work of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve that not even a last minute, convoluted over explanation can cheapen the terror that unfolds on screen.