Bob Garver

Last week, I reviewed “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” which was based on a series that I hadn’t seen, but I was well-aware of its larger world and its place in popular culture. This week is “Backrooms,” which is also based on a series that I haven’t seen, and was in no way known to me until a few weeks ago. Even once I did hear about it, it struck me as an obscure, niche product for horror nerds. Yet both films are estimated to have made over $81 million at the domestic box office in their first three days. How does this movie based on a simple series of web shorts find itself performing just as well as an entry into one of the biggest franchises in history? Like everything about “Backrooms,” I don’t know, it makes no sense, but I like it.

The film, which I understand to feature characters never before seen in the series (I also understand that one does not need to have seen the series to understand the movie… to the degree that one can understand the movie), follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an unhappy, unsuccessful furniture salesman in early 90’s Santa Clara. He sees psychiatrist Dr. Kline (Renate Reinsve) following an ugly divorce, but she doesn’t seem to be much help, partly because he isn’t receptive to her treatment, and partly because she’s can’t help but be distracted by her own emotional baggage.

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Late one night, Clark notices light coming through a crack in the wall in the office of his store. He goes to investigate, and finds himself inexplicably transported through the wall. On the other side is a room not unlike what one would expect to find in the back of a furniture store: dull and dingy with annoying fluorescent lights and a big stack of furniture that doesn’t seem fit for the showroom. Even though it’s his store, Clark has never seen this room before, and he certainly didn’t know about the magic portal. Further investigation reveals that there are more, similar rooms beyond the first, to the point where he can’t tell where they end. Also, “something” is skulking around back there.

Clark is able to escape the Backrooms through the same portal, and tells Dr. Kline, who doesn’t believe his far-fetched claims about walking right through a wall and a series of rooms with furniture that isn’t quite right. He goes back in with his employee Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and her cameraman boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett) to document the labyrinth, but things don’t go so well this time. Eventually Dr. Kline tries the Backrooms herself to find that Clark has gone mad, among other horrors.

You never know what will be around the next corner in “Backrooms,” except that it will make you feel uneasy. Not “terrified,” necessarily, there’s not much traditionally scary about piles of laundry or an indoor stop sign. But why is there so much laundry nowhere near a laundry machine and why is there a stop sign planted indoors? It’s unsettling in a way that you can’t quite put your finger on, like the hexagonal carpet pattern from “The Shining.” Of course, there are also things in the film that are meant to be scary in the traditional sense, but I found them underwhelming. The film is at its best when it’s subtle and mysterious, like a dream where things are recognizable, and yet not.

I mentioned “The Shining” as a clear influence on “Backrooms,” I also got hints of “Being John Malkovich,” “Cube,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and anything directed by David Lynch. All weird movies, combined, twisted and given elaboration by writer/director Kane Parsons – a name that this movie will instantly shoot to the top of the horror genre. Some critics are saying that it’s the performances that make “Backrooms” stand out, and while the Oscar nominees do put in excellent work, I say the real star is the Backrooms themselves, in all their uncanny-valley glory, as they do not-quite-convincing impressions of actual backrooms.

Grade: B-

“Backrooms” is rated R for language and some violent content/bloody images. Its running time is 110 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.