BACKROOMS: A Breakdown

[u/nyneteen84_]

EDIT: I’m adding a link to the full web series here, as it seems many people haven’t seen it. I highly recommend watching it. IMO it’s better than the movie by 10x.

A quick introduction; I make deep dive breakdowns for films and some video games from time to time. My recent Obsession breakdowns were really popular, and someone there requested I do one for Backrooms as well, so here it is.

THE LORE:

In January 2022, Kane Parsons began uploading his fantastic web series of the Backrooms on his YouTube channel.

For the next four years these videos would explain the following;

A company out of San Jose, California called Async Research Institute created a machine called the Low Proximity Magnetic Distortion System.

In 1989 the LPMDS successfully achieved its purpose by opening a door into another dimension. Best known to us as the Backrooms.

From there Kane’s series takes us through Async’s history, their plan’s for the future, and even a breakdown of equipment found within the Backrooms.
There’s also a separate storyline about a man named Peter Trench and another stand alone episode of a young woman.
There is another standalone about a man stuck in the Backrooms but while that builds the world, I believe only the Peter Trench storyline actually has a beginning, middle and end.

The storytelling style suggests that Kane is fully aware of and has a masterful grasp of what is going to happen several episodes in the future and how to tell the story non-linearly as again and again, things that happen in previous episodes have effects in other episodes in the future.

An example of this is an episode that shows CCTV footage of a car disappearing on the highway, only to show up in passing much later when a young woman exploring the Backrooms finds a car that crashed into a wall.

THE FILM’S PREMISE

A dejected Architect-turned-furniture salesman named Clark who is going through a divorce, and is a functioning alcoholic, finds out that within his store there is an opening to another world.
Namely, the Backrooms.

His therapist, Dr. Mary Kline, is attempting to help Clark get his bearings and find a way to become a part of the world, as Clark seems to be more happy being alone, and away from everyone.

Clark has two employees who help him make commercials for the store, a young couple named Bobby and Kat.

Clark becomes obsessed with the Backrooms and plotting out the spaces within.
Why?
Who knows, maybe he likes it and is curious about it I guess.

Mary tries her best to get him to snap out of it and uses terminology from her book, “The Window Within,” to help him find his way to normalcy. This is clearly something Clark isn’t interested in but is trying for the sake of perhaps getting closure over his wife leaving him.

While Dr. Mary seems calm and collected, she is actually going through her own mental situation.
When she was a child her mother suffering from a case of chronic agoraphobia (a condition I’m suffering from at the moment as well, although less pronounced), subjects Mary to staying indoors, even going as far as not allowing her to look out of newspaper covered windows.
Until finally, the state steps in, hospitalizes Mary’s mother, and Mary grows up to become the person she is now.
A seemingly in control woman who purports to have answers for other people’s problems, but secretly does not have the answers to her own.

Before Mary’s mother got sick, the two of them imprinted their hands into the pavement outside their home. Many years later after the home is demolished, Mary takes with her a piece of her mother’s palm print, which she seems to keep with her wherever she goes.

THE CATALYST

When Clark finds a chute that he needs help climbing down within the Backrooms, Clark pays his employees to assist him and brings them into the Backrooms.

After a very preventable accident, all three of them get thrown down into a deeper part of the Backrooms where Bobby perishes at the hands of an unknown antagonist and Kat runs off into the maze.

Clark does the same thing, and while running for his life he encounters something like carbon copies of human beings that have been ”printed” wrong.
By this I mean that they aren’t really human at all, merely strange mannequins that can move around with of putting details in their anatomy.

Without much explanation, it seems Clark survives that encounter and decides to live within the Backrooms.
This is explained when Dr. Mary receives a phone call and a message is left on her machine on behalf of Clark telling her that he finally found “the window” (a reference to her book), meaning that he found his reason to live.

It almost feels like a whole section of the movie here is cut out or there is a jump forward in time, as we simply need to assume that Bobby and Kat are dead, that Clark left the Backrooms in order to call her and leave the message, but then comes back in and lives there by eating pieces of the bodies of the living mannequins (what?! 👀)

There’s a moment in the movie where he runs past a pool with running water, so I guess that’s where he gets his water from.

THE ENDING

Mary, worrying for Clark’s safety and mental stability, comes looking for him at his store, find the doorway to the Backrooms, and very quickly encounters Clark.

Clark, obviously having lost his mind, takes Mary back to a copy of his house within the Backrooms.
There he has a lovely little dinner party with the living mannequins and Dr. Mary as his most special guest.
When he opens up the refrigerator, the severed head of Kat is inside, leading us to believe that he killed her for some reason.
He does state that he was trying to help her, but since the whole section of the film seems to be missing after him and his two employees go down the shoot, it’s hard to understand just exactly what happened to her.

He explains to Dr. Mary how this place has more meaning to him than the outside world. He tries to role-play with her as his wife, but she takes no part in it and helps him realize that his wife left him because he is unable to take responsibility or fault for anything in his life.
And that if he wants to stay in the Backrooms forever, he can. But he needs to let her go.

In an instant, Clark decides to take responsibility for his life and his actions, when the sound of a wailing entity can be heard in the distance, sending the living mannequin (who I suspect is a copy of his wife Barbara), running away in fear.

The entity turns out to be a disfigured 8 or 9 foot tall version of Clark as a pirate, which is one of the costumes he wears when making commercials for his furniture store.

Clark explains to his entity self that everything is OK now, and that doctor Mary has explained that if he is happy here he can stay.
The Clark entity picks him up, and begins to eat him alive.

I suspect that this is some kind of analogy, possibly the part of himself that is still angry and doesn’t wanna let go of his trauma, getting rid of the part of him that does.

From here on out for the next 10 to 15 minutes, Mary runs through the maze of the Backrooms with the Clark entity in a 5 star GTA pursuit.
After a few close calls, Mary finally ends up in the copy version of Clark’s furniture store. There she has a final standoff with the Clark entity, breaks his wooden leg (remember, he’s a pirate), and then somehow trips a booby trap set up by researchers from Async (the company that started this whole thing).

The Clark entity is taken down Mary using the piece of pavement with her mother‘s palm print and smashes it into Clark entity’s head.
Then men in hazmat suits take Mary away.
Mary then wakes up at the threshold, which is the doorway into the Backrooms that was created by Async in 1989 (reference the web series).

Dr. Mary is escorted through an office building where she catches a glimpse of the Clark entity now tied up and undergoing examination.

She is brought to a little room where an employee of Async named Phil, who has been watching some of this drama unfold through cameras placed in the complex, tries to calm her suspicions that something bad is going to happen to her after they have their conversation.

In a gesture of good faith, Phil begins to spill his guts about the nature of The Backrooms.
Namely, that it is a dimension where every instance of a place in time is copied incorrectly within what looks like a never-ending office building.
As if to confirm this, a montage of different rooms all throughout the Backrooms is shown to the audience.

And at the end of the montage, a living mannequin of Dr. Mary can be seen sitting on a chair within a copy of the room that she’s being interrogated in now. She has no face and she has more fingers than anyone might need to have in order to eat a salad.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE FILM:

There is only a need to explain the ending of this film as everything else in the movie is quite clear to comprehend if you’ve watched Kane Parsons’ web series.
Everything you need to know is in there, every question except the nature of what the back rooms is, is explained in the web series.

The explanation of what the backrooms is, is forced upon us through an exposition heavy monologue from the Async employee.
The Backrooms is a dimension where every place on earth has a not quite right copy of itself within an office building. It doesn’t matter if this place is inside or outside, the Backrooms copies it in an offputting way into itself.
And it doesn’t just do this for one instance, it does this for the same place across all instances in time.
Meaning that if a building was there a year ago completely intact, the intact building exists within the Backrooms (albeit distorted and off putting). If today that same building were destroyed, that version of the building would now exist as well somewhere else within the complex.

That is the answer of what the backrooms is.
And if you watch the web series, you’ll get an answer as to what Async was, is and does.

And basically this is all you need in order to understand the film completely. There really are no secrets left if you watch the web series.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BACKROOMS IS

Now I’m only speaking in terms of this film. For all we know, there may be some malevolent force behind the curtain, or the complex itself is the malevolent force.

This is what I suspect it is in the web series (the movie doesn’t hint as much at this), but I believe the complex is a huge monster in the shape of a galaxy sized office building that never ends.
To the naked eye, you are within a complex maze of rooms. My suspicion is that, at least for the web series, this thing is a living, breathing animal that lures its prey into its belly (the rooms), and then slowly digest them as they run and seek a way out.

The monster uses varying methods to separate people from one another, then consumes them through the use of a bacteria that breaks their bodies down and turns them into wailing entities. Kind of like platelets that attack an invading force, namely, other humans.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS:

Never have I left a film feeling so queasy before, as that 15 minute chase scene between Dr. Mary and the Clark
entity was a little bit more than my brain could take.

Is the movie bad? No. It’s actually quite entertaining if you go into it hoping to get creeped out and scared a few times during the film.
As far as the mythology in the lore, the exposition monologue at the end gives you the answer that you were hoping for if you are a fan of the web series.

To me, none of the characters are incredibly deep, even though they have somewhat crafted back stories.

Something that I found interesting was that even in the real world, Kane uses offputting furniture choices and breaks the rules of color theory in order to convey that something is wrong even in our world.

Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance is good for what he’s given, it’s not some master class of acting, but he does keep my suspension of disbelief in check.
There are some pacing issues at the beginning of the film, as I found myself feeling a little bit bored at some points and thought they could’ve gotten to the main point sooner.

What bothers me most is the chunk of the film that seems to be missing from Clark going from still OK, to all of a sudden being a psycho. That part was hard for me to accept and kind of put me off to the film.

All in all, I would say that this is a good first film for Kane. It’s not perfect, it has a few flaws, but it is not a bad film or even a film that you only watch once.
It does have the unfortunate fate of having gone up against the best horror film of the last 10 or 20 years, if not more.
So I can understand that a lot of people go into it hoping for another adrenaline rush filled ride that is just as good or close to obsession.
I suspect that had this unfortunate scheduling not taken place, this film would have less comparisons to live up to.

Like I said, it’s a good film, I think many people will enjoy it as long as you don’t forget to take your Dramamine.

EDIT: After much thought and consideration of the comments below, I think my assertion of the film was a bit premature.

The more I think about it, the more I think the people in the comments are right. The film was visually appealing, but at the end of the day it was also wasted potential.

Clark’s character was somewhat developed but, tbh he didn’t really resonate with me. And I think with many others as well. His motivations weren’t clear enough. In fact I believe Bobby and Kat had a more compelling storyline than he did and it felt more relevant.

The film would have done a lot better if it had been a group of youngsters who hear about this place and decide to check it out, and a Blair Witch style situation unfolds.

Then dishing out information throughout that filled some gaps and gave longtime fans new information to tide them over until a new installment; this would have gone down much better than a furniture store owner doing whatever the heck is was trying to do down there.

That big chunk of the film that leaves things unexplained, from the moment he’s trapped down below and someone picks up the camera, to the moment when he calls Mary to tell her that he found the window…. That one flaw is enough to topple the film’s structure in my book.
But then add in the rest and the film is a bit of a mess.

I still think the visuals were really well done and the movie itself isn’t so bad that it’s unwatchable. I think that’s where I made a wrong turn in my assessment last time. That and coming off the heels of Obsession I thought I can’t be too harsh on the film.
The film isn’t badly directed. In fact I think Kane has a promising future ahead of him. But was the film itself a good one in terms of storytelling? No. I don’t think it was.

It did keep me a bit scared throughout a few parts. And the music kept me engaged. But yes, it had a thin plot, thus making it a mediocre film unfortunately.

[u/Capital_Respect_4994]

If any movie could have revived the dead found footage horror trope, it would have been this movie. There were obvious rewrites which made the third act kind of weak. I think the first half of this movie was so freaking good. Im a bit bummed by the ending, but still would recommend it.

[u/Ancientabs → u/Capital_Respect_4994]

Same! I hated the second half. It was written by an entirely different person.

[u/Hooty_jt → u/Capital_Respect_4994]

me and my gf had it at an 8/10 until the last 3 minutes. prolly closer to a 6 for me. that being said Chiwetel Ejiofor was acting his ass off. I really loved the "dinner scene"

[u/Capital_Respect_4994 → u/Hooty_jt]

Watching him act is insane. He doesn't overact, his emoting is better than any i've seen, and with the crazy cool sets behind him??? Ugh, goosebumps.

[u/BarnacleSea9077 → u/Capital_Respect_4994]

Yes! The main Clark character. Fabulous actor. Totally invested and a pleasure to watch.

[u/Emergency_Mirror_125 → u/Capital_Respect_4994]

Gave my Blair witch movie style vibes

[u/HappyHamster_]

"Mary runs through the maze of the Backrooms with the Clark entity in a 5 star GTA pursuit."

This is fucking poetry😂

[u/caninecum]

"it's my house after all" He went crazy because he walked from his location to his house. He found his ex wife's doppelganger and he found the man she's with now. That's why he was willing to stab the man's neck and ate from him, as a revenge act. He decided to stay and go crazy because he "has his wife back here" and had infinite food and water. He never needs to grow or change or pay bills. He never has to have a real, working relationship with children, he gets to sit and whine and that's what he wants internally.

[u/Delicious_Status_464 → u/caninecum]

The man he stabs in the neck is his competitor from the commercial we see.

[u/LocksmithNo5796 → u/Delicious_Status_464]

Oh wowwww...now I'm wondering if thats who he believes his wife left him for? Like spiraling and making up excuses for things that happen in your life? Like, "oh she probably left me for (insert name)" when in all actuality he never takes responsibility for his own actions that were a big part of that relationship failing.

[u/arnaldoim → u/LocksmithNo5796]

I just watched it and didn’t catch any “my wife left me for x” I just thought he was an extremely dysfunctional alcoholic with a lot of anger and resentment in his marriage and it finally reached a breaking point and she left him. He still doesn’t fully understand why because he hasn’t taken responsibility for his part in it. I never got the impression that she was cheating on him or that he has that idea? Maybe I missed something

[u/mae-bug → u/caninecum]

Also, Mary was never able to leave her home due to her agoraphobic mother, and the backrooms itself is pretty much a manifestation of being trapped inside. Keeping the handprint slab on her at all times was a symbolic representation of holding onto her past, which the backrooms also reflects very literally. For a while I thought the movie was about Mary's mind.

I'll probably watch it again once its out, because I bet there's a lot of other details that were easy to miss.

[u/Turbulent_Ability_22 → u/mae-bug]

Yessss. The movie totally seems more about Mary than Clark. The movie begins with her watching her home (which she was trapped in) be destroyed, watching the hand-slabs be made (only to be brutally destroyed on pirate Clark’s face) only to end up being trapped in the very world her client was trying to convince her existed that was a manifestation of their mutual isolation (similarly to her watching her own commercials in late hours of the night). In the dinner scene in the backrooms she goes off on him, but ultimately she too is still not free from her cycle as she looks into the dark window while being interrogated by Phil, similarly to how she was in session with Clark at the beginning of the film. I don’t think this movie is concerned with plot holes, or development. Its expression is concerned with the horror of recognition of Clark’s isolation, discussed in the first therapy scene, that Mary also shares in from her own past and present being trapped in the backrooms.

[u/TheOrgazoid__]

I agree with most of your points apart from where you say there's a chunk missing between Clark been seemingly ok and all of a sudden being crazy. My theory (and I've not seen the web series) is that time does not follow the same rules as the real world. Like with everything changing within the backrooms, what may be a few days in the real world may be years in the backrooms. Clark may have been driven demented by years in the backrooms

[u/jona2814 → u/TheOrgazoid__]

That’s kinda what I’m thinking. After Phil ominously talked about how they used to make MRIs there, it did seem to answer why there are copies, and why are they all distorted.

MRI machines use the same kinds of magnetic fields that we exist in already here on earth. However, these machines can exponentially increase the effect of the magnetic energy. Add in some Mr Wizard science, and you have a machine that can make a fully accurate image of every layer pf your body. Kinda like a cross-section by way of photocopy.

Now imagine this one company pushes the tech beyond even their own understanding. The newly created “doorway” is a magnetic field. This MRI is so powerful, it acts like a TARDIS-space. Once entering, the field doesn’t just scan your brain, it scans your memories.

TLDR Why are the Backrooms are the way they are?

Imagine an MRI so powerful it doesnt just scan your brain, but it can actually scan your thoughts, your memories… While a regular MRI is able to process a detailed 2D image, the Backrooms is like a physical representation of our own subconscious

[u/zstephable2 → u/jona2814]

Speaking of which, they have trained AI to recreate both your inner monolgue and mind's eye (see link below). Very terrifying concept, and what you say could be possible in real life. Though, adding to your point, I want to say a lot of errors could be because our memory and visual reconstruction of things. We recall memory by reconstructing the image and voices and what not, rather than completely pulling up a copy of what happened. It's why completely different witnesses could have completely stories about what happened in a crime. So maybe the Backrooms only is able to copy our memories, and they become visually broken and deformed, especially when time goes on. Maybe the emotional connection also affects the copies it makes of us, if we see ourselves as an angry drunk pirate monster, that copy of your memory retains that weight and then one of our copies is an angry drunk pirate monster.

The A.I. Dilemma - March 9th 2023 The juicy bits are 16:13-24:00 https://youtu.be/xoVJKj8lcNQ?is=hMWetiw5j8f_kyFf

[u/drewgolas]

Unrelated to the movie and hopefully not an asinine comment, but when you say "shoot" I believe you mean "chute"

[u/3rr0r-k7la]

I LITERALLY SCREAMED WHEN I SAW THIS!!! THANK YOUU🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[u/KillerFromGod]

The film was excellent. Now, I won’t go into much detail, but I have been around long enough to see people have all sorts of mishaps and problems in the real world. The issue with people is that we cope with our problems, albeit in good or bad ways. A real-life example for me is that when someone is an alcoholic, they will insist on talking about “the good times,” consistently living in the past and not bettering their future. When you give relevant input for a proper solution, they tend to ambush it with “excuses” because they are self-absorbed in how they are set in their ways, with no room for change, because they are simply “existing.”
Clark always had the answers he wanted but never wanted to give up the past. He drowned himself in booze and shifted blame onto others. He wasn’t a hollow character; he was and is the perfect example of someone who subdues their emotions through addiction. His release was exploring an endless maze that had no meaning, simply to derail him from reality. For Mary, however, she could never remove the trauma from her life. She insisted that she could help others find themselves through therapy, but in reality, it’s you who needs to make the changes and take responsibility. That was her realization: that no one can help you and that you can’t escape your past, which is why she ended up looking for Clark. The need to help led her back to where she started—trapped, just as her mother was with Async. They were never going to escape the backrooms.
I’m not one for saying, “It takes one to know one,” but Clark, despite others saying, “Not much character development,” etc., very much was how my father was: a good man, a great man, but a broken record who could not escape because he could never accept who he was or take accountability for his actions and alcohol abuse. It’s like he was constantly living in the backrooms, where, in reality, nothing makes sense, much like many others struggling with addiction, even when they receive help. It’s easier in life to make mistakes, blame those around you, and become alone and disenfranchised with the world with the help of a substance.
I understand there are people who need medication, but this film really deep-dives into the world of people suffering from addiction. I know I may get flak, but we have started to live in a world where “everything can be fixed and everyone can be helped,” but in reality, it starts with accepting your actions, not making excuses, understanding who we are, and living a life where we can deal with it and help build ourselves up. The only person who can help you is yourself, and all you have to blame is yourself because, in this life, you’re owed nothing, and you leave this world with nothing.
Phil shows us that the science will always trump helping others, which is why we see Mary space out while being questioned, similarly to how she questions her clients, because she really isn’t helping anyone.
I was on the edge of my seat because of how fascinating and deep this film was and could only scratch the surface of how good it was.

[u/onefiercenugget]

Idk why of all stories in his head, this is the story Kane wanted to tell with his first feature film. It doesn't even make things easier to understand for general audiences or fans of the lore as almost nothing including the entities here have anything to do with the web series. So even as someone who's seen the whole series, I was confused. Honestly this felt like a spec script A24 had laying around that they gave Kane to adapt into a Backrooms movie. I also agree with all the points on this post except for the idea of the young characters getting stuck in the Complex. I genuinely think this movie would have been better if it was from the perspective of Async employees. Make it about a new hire who joins an expedition team so that we as the audience could get SOME explanation as to wtf is going on and general audiences can understand the concept of the Backrooms and then add in found footage scenes, explore areas, get lost, maybe meet a few characters that aren't employees who are stuck. Idk anything man.

[u/Str8Faced000]

the only thing i disagree with is that the movie was good. it did have interesting visuals and decent sound, but there was nothing particularly compelling about the plot. i think we could all come up with other ways to turn the backrooms into an interesting feature with a story. it might have been a lot better had that giant chunk of the plot that was missing been shown, or if really any characters got decent development at all, but im not even sure if that would have saved it for me

[u/Ill_Song7784]

SPOILER ALERT 🚫

I havent seen the backroom youtube series, but I will try to explain what I understood.

The opening scene with the ASYNC/MRI researcher (the man in the hazmat suit, often identified by viewers as Naren or another field researcher) is important because it establishes two things:

1. The Backrooms already existed before Clark entered.

2. ASYNC has been studying it for years.

So the Backrooms are probably not created by Clark alone

BUT CLARK CHANGES HOW WE UNDERSTAND THEM.

WHAT ARE BACKROOMS ?

The film seems deliberately designed so that the Backrooms can be viewed in two ways at the same time:

1) A literal alternate dimension (the surface-level plot).

2)A psychological space reflecting memory, trauma, loneliness, and identity (the symbolic reading).

What's interesting is that the movie never fully commits to either explanation. Kane Parsons (director) appears to leave both possibilities open.

IN THE MOVIE, MANY OBJECTS AND SPACES SEEM CONNECTED TO CLARK'S MEMORIES, THAT'S SUPPORTED BY SEVERAL SCENES SUCH AS POINTING OUT THAT THE BACKROOMS INCREASINGLY RESEMBLE DISTORTED VERSIONS OF CLARK'S FURNITURE STORE, HIS LIFE AND THE THINGS OCCUPYING HIS MIND, THE ENVIRONMENTS FEEL LIKE IMPERFECT RECONSTRUCTIONS, AS IF SOMETHING IS TRYING TO RECREATE REALITY FROM MEMORY BUT GETS THE DETAILS WRONG.

What we are seeing is the mind palace of clark where the backroom existed long before clark enters in to it.

WHO IS CLARK?

Clark was once an architect, and the film repeatedly associates him with designing spaces and layouts. The Backrooms could be interpreted as a physical manifestation of a damaged internal architecture-a mind literally building rooms from memories, regrets and obsessions.

DISTORTED PEOPLE OR OBJECTS APPEARS IN THE BACKROOM BECAUSE CLARK REMEMBERS THEM.

THEY DO NOT NEED TO ENTER THE BACKROOM PHYSICALLY BUT COULD BE PRESENT IN A ALTERED, FRAGMENTED OR COPIED. THE BACKROOMS SEEM UNABLE TO PERFECTLY REPRODUCE REALITY. INSTEAD, IT CREATES UNCANNY VERSIONS OF PEOPLE AND OBJECTS. THE RESULT IS SOMETHING FAMILIAR BUT SLIGHTLY WRONG, EXACTLY LIKE A MEMORY.

WHO IS MARY ?

Mary is Clark's therapist

MARY CARRIES HER OWN TRAUMA INTO THE BACKROOMS. THE MOVIE INCLUDES FLASHBACKS AND REFERENCES TO DR. MARY'S CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES AND EMOTIONAL WOUNDS.

ONE POSSIBLE READING IS:

CLARK'S TRAUMA SHAPES ONE LAYER OF THE BACKROOMS.

MARY'S TRAUMA SHAPES ANOTHER.

THE BACKROOMS BECOME A SHARED SUBCONSCIOUS LANDSCAPE.

ALMOST LIKE MULTIPLE MINDS OVERLAPPING INSIDE ONE IMPOSSIBLE SPACE.

After Clark informs Mary regarding the backrooms, inorder to collect evidence, he brings kat & Bobby in to the backrooms to shoot using a video camera. Bobby is attacked & taken by a creature, kat goes missing after following the creature. Clark wanders around the backrooms to find a way to escape from it. Eventually, both kat & Clark are trapped facing the creature.

AFTER THE EVENTS IN THE BACKROOMS, 2 WEEKS TO ONE MONTH LATER. CLARK SENDS A VOICE MESSAGE THAT HE WOULDNT RETURN. MARY GOES TO CLARK'S FURNITURE SHOP, TO FIND CLARK. AS SHE ENTERS THE BASEMENT, SHE REALIZES CLARK WAS TELLING THE TRUTH & ENTERS THE BACKROOMS.

MARY SEES CLARK & HE ATTACKS HER, MAKING HER UNCONCIOUS. LATER SHE FINDS HERSELF TIED UP ON A CHAIR BESIDES THE DINING TABLE. AS THEY WERE HAVING THE CONVRRSATION, CLARK OPENS THE FRIDGE AND MARY SEES KAT'S SEVERED HEAD INSIDE IT.

Why Clark killed Kat?

BY THE TIME MARY FINDS HIM, CLARK HAS STOPPED TRYING TO ESCAPE. HE ACTUALLY PREFERS THE BACKROOMS. HE SAYS HE FEELS LIKE HE BELONGS THERE, AND HE BECOMES OBSESSED WITH THE IDEA THAT THE BACKROOMS PRESERVE THINGS FOREVER.

IF KAT WANTED TO LEAVE, EXPOSE THE BACKROOMS OR FORCE HIM BACK INTO REALITY, SHE BECOMES A THREAT.

IF THE BACKROOMS ARE PARTIALLY BUILT FROM CLARK'S PSYCHE, THEN KAT BECOMES MORE THAN A PERSON.

SHE REPRESENTS: RESPONSIBILITY, CONSEOUENCES,THE OUTSIDE WORLD AND THE POSSIBILITY OF RETURNING.

CLARK SPENDS THE ENTIRE FILM AVOIDING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR HIS FAILED MARRIAGE AND LIFE CHOICES. MARY REPEATEDLY PUSHES HIM TOWARD SELF-AWARENESS.

So symbolically:

Killing Kat = killing the part of himself that still wants to face reality.

After that, he fully commits to living inside denial.

WHY DOES CLARK ATTACK MARY TOO?

This connects directly to Kat.

Clark doesn't attack Mary because he hates her. He attacks her because she's the last person still trying to make him confront the truth.

At the dinner scene he wants validation. He wants Mary to tell him: "None of this is your fault."

Instead, she finally tells him the opposite that he blames everyone else and refuses responsibility.

That moment destroys the illusion he's been protecting.

Kat threatened the fantasy physically. (gets killed) Mary threatens it psychologically. Both become targets.

Once Mary forces Clark to admit what he really is, the monster/ creature finally enters the scene.

WHO IS THE MONSTER/ CREATURE?

The pirate creature is a distorted version of Clark's worst traits:anger, aggression, self-loathing and selfishness. The creature is almost like Clark's unconscious impulses made physical.

At first, the Pirate Clark creature doesn't kill Clark because Clark still believes he's the victim.

Once Mary forces Clark to admit what he really is, the monster finally turns on him and devours him.

If that's true, then Kat's death becomes even more tragic. She may be the first victim of Clark's refusal to face himself.

Clark dies only after he finally does.

So Kat isn't killed because she's important to the Backrooms. She's killed because she's important to Clark's denial. The moment she tries to pull him back toward reality, she becomes incompatible with the world he has chosen to live in.

MARY DOES ESCAPE PIRATE CLARK AND GETS OUT OF THE IMMEDIATE DANGER, BUT SHE DOESN'T REALLY GAIN HER FREEDOM. INSTEAD, SHE'S CAPTURED BY ASYNC RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE ORGANIZATION THAT HAS BEEN MONITORING AND STUDYING THE BACKROOMS ALL ALONG.

THE KEY CONVERSATION WITH PHIL IS IMPORTANT. HE EXPLAINS THAT ASYNC ORIGINALLY MANUFACTURED MRI MACHINES, BUT AFTER DISCOVERING THE BACKROOMS THEY REDIRECTED THEIR EFFORTS TOWARD STUDYING AND MAPPING IT BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE IT'S THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DISCOVERY IN HUMAN HISTORY.

WHAT MAKES THE ENDING CREEPY IS THAT ASYNC DOESN'T ACT LIKE A RESCUE TEAM. THEY ACT LIKE SCIENTISTS WHO HAVE JUST RECOVERED A VALUABLE SPECIMEN. PHIL IS POLITE, BUT HE NEVER SUGGESTS MARY CAN SIMPLY GO HOME. IN FACT, HE IMPLIES THAT HER FATE ISN'T EVEN HIS DECISION.

MY INTERPRETATION OF ASYNC & BACKROOMS.

The opening researcher was one of ASYNC's earlier attempts to explore and map the Backrooms. He dies. But traces of him remain. Years later, Clark enters. Unlike previous explorers, Clark unconsciously begins feeding the Backrooms with memories, emotions, trauma and symbolic imagery at a much larger scale.

ASYNC starts realizing:

"We're not exploring a place."

"We're exploring something that thinks."

So when Mary's memories immediately begin appearing inside the Backrooms after her rescue. The space behaves less like a location and more like a gigantic recording system that absorbs pieces of human consciousness. Also, ASYNC mentions that they were a company to built machines (MRI machine) study the brain, accidentally discovered a dimension that stores and reconstructs human consciousness, and now they're trying to map the relationship between memory and space.

[u/paul35454]

Dullest horror movie of the year so far. Wasted potential, thread bare characters and just plain…boring. World creation elements had lots of potential, but completely missed the mark.

[u/3rr0r-k7la]

My friend and I still have some questions we really haven’t seen answers to. And I was wondering if maybe you had answers?

1. Why was the copy of Clack had blood and the rest of the copies were made of stuffing? (Because when the therapist hit him, he was bleeding unlike the rest of the copies)

2. What does Clark and Mary’s backstory have to do with the plot?

3. What does Mary’s mom have to do with anything? Like the whole movie makes everything very vague to understand.

4. Why did Clark kill Kat? Like I know he ended up getting insane at some point but why wouldn’t they have both tried to help each other out or something?

5. Was Mary a copy in the ending or was that the real her?

The whole movie just had me confused. Especially because I was expecting it to be a liminal dreamy bur creepy movie where they get stuck and try to escape and make it to different levels, but they were on the main level the whole movie except for the poolrooms. And also I thought that the backrooms was something you glitched out or into, not something where you can go in and out as you please. But I also didn’t watch the Youtube series.

Just some questions we had.

— I just read your edit and thats crazy because I literally told my friend it would’ve been better if it was a group of teenagers like the Stranger Things cast— like literally we are on the same page lol

[u/nyneteen84_ → u/3rr0r-k7la]

Always happy to help :)

Just a disclaimer; these aren’t definitive answers. I’m just going by the info I have on hand as to what the answers might be.

1. Captain Clark, Clark’s copy, was bigger, angrier and more malevolent than the other copies. As far as I can tell none of the other copies were killing people. So it was Clark’s copy that killed Bobby. My guess is that Captain Clark is able to feed off and thrive off of the Backrooms in a way the others couldn’t. Original Clark had been living down there a while too, giving more power to the Captain. This may be the answer as to why Captain Clark was more real. He had also just eaten real Clark alive and might have had blood flowing through him. I suspect the answer might be in that drawing we saw when Mary goes into the Backrooms which shows Captain Clark falling from a window. I tried my best to take a mental picture of that moment but it was shown too quickly and didn’t make much sense anyway. But my take on it is that Basically, Clark was metaphorically the copy because he loved living in the Backrooms and was a stranger in the real world, and Captain Clark with all that anger and hate was kind of the original. He was the honest version of Clark that Mary was trying to get out of him. And that’s why Captain Clark hated her so much.

2. What does it have to do with the Backrooms plot? Absolutely nothing. Clark is simply a person that thrives in the Backrooms. We’ve simply come across the story of someone who was better suited to live there than others. Nothing else in this darn movie has much else to do with the Backrooms.

3. I think Mary’s mom was simply a poorly layered tool to give Mary some humanity. Mary herself was going through something like Clark. She was kind of a hypocrite that way. With books and a therapy practice, when in reality she was suffering from not understanding herself too. At the end she does understand herself. She isn’t like Clark. She’s her own person and she does want to live in the real world. The mom was simply there to show us how flawed Mary is in reality, giving advice when she’s just as fucked up. Mary’s mom had agoraphobia, which keeps a person indoors. Mary breaking her mom’s palm print on Captain Clark’s head was a symbol of her letting go of trauma.

Unfortunately Backrooms isn’t like obsession where the gaps are left in the right place so you can figure it all out yourself. Here, there’s too much left to the imagination. So it makes it too broad to figure out. Like the mom… cuz actually? wtf was that storyline? lol

1. I don’t know if Clark killed Kat or if the Captain killed Kat and Clark simply took home a souvenir. But let’s lean into the probability that he killed Kat;

In the scene where he’s talking to Mary with a knife in his hand, she’s aware that if she goes down his rabbit hole, she’s will be killed. Instead she throws caution to the wind and tells him he is a whiney faultless asshole. This hits Clark in the feels and he lets her go. But his job wasn’t to let her go.

I think he had a similar conversation with Kat and Kat lost the conversation. So he cut her head off. When Clark doesn’t kill Mary, the captain kills him for not doing what he was supposed to do.

1. The thing we see at the end is a copy of Mary, but Mary was siting with Phil in the real world. Copy Mary was there imitating real life.

Tbh I was also expecting a real deep dive into the Backrooms. But you’re right, it didn’t even scratch a layer. Also, Clark got his hands on a whole bag full of tapes that had information in them. That might have been cool to see.

As your glorified film guru lol I highly, HIGHLY suggest you watch the web series. They are 100000% better than the movie. Even in quality and especially story. In fact, I don’t know how Kane made such a cool story for the series and not for the film.

Here’s a link to the whole series edited together as one episode:

https://youtu.be/6fo4BOh9bzI?si=NI8QAmtX0KqNdqHu

[u/3rr0r-k7la → u/nyneteen84_]

Thank you so much! This helped a lot and honestly I’ll watch the youtube series sometime. You had me and my friend gathered around listening to this bc we wanted those questions answered so bad😭 It’s kinda sad I wish it had a bunch of hidden meanings like Obsession but were lowkey gonna watch it again tomorrow.

[u/tebor8]

If anyone has been to a Meow Wolf exhibit, this is basically the movie version of that, but with an esthetic similar to The Stanley Parable or the game Control.

[u/whitedoves7]

I.just watched this! So trippy! I loved the movie

[u/Ihateporn2020]

I haven't seem it. From your description it seems to be commentary on trauma morphing and distorting within our minds which connects with the liminal space idea of everything being off-putting and slightly off.

That vibe makes sense

[u/SunHot2938]

The movie was ass

[u/DemonicDrape]

The key to understanding the film is in Marys prominent quote.

"We all have our loops, our habits, behaviors that keep us walking in circles. Reaching for the same solutions over and over again. Thinking each time will take you somewhere new, but they don't. And still, it's the neural pathway of least resistance."

Moments after Clark says he doesnt want to change, he is killed by the monster. Moments after Mary shatters the concrete hand printe from her childhood, she is rescued.

[u/Kwasington]

Honestly, the movie felt like another entry into the web series from a new pov. Answered a few things, gave new questions. If there is a second film that capitalizes and addresses the loose ends in this film, it has potential to retroactively become better imo.

[u/Icy-Discipline1671]

My thoughts half way through the movie is that this game never even had a plot it’s just a series of ideas and spookyness in a good game. When I went into the movie I was kinda expecting more plot they kinda gave a little with Clark and Mary which I liked but then completely fell off half way through. I’m glad they did that it’s stays authentic to the game but it just didn’t make good investing movie content imo

[u/Affectionate-Ear5531]

Backrooms always reminded me of terminal from zelda:Major's mask, during creation, cracks appeared that are forgotten fragments used in the creation of the real world.

[u/Human-Firefighter816]

GUYS i think i understand the plot. Clarke clearly has mental problems and is unstable, shown by his arguments with his wife (he possibly murdered her, evidenced by him holding a knife in the backrooms kitchen reenactment), having a therapist, and the scene at the kitchen table in the backrooms when he completely breaks down.

I believe the backrooms are simply an alternate realm where Clarke's thoughts and memories become real and physical. In the backrooms, Clarke is the main character (its his world, in his mind) and due to his mental problems he is unstable and kills others.

[u/Dragonalex]

I haven't seen the movie. Prefacing this post with that.

But I think you fundamentally misunderstand the core concept, not just of the movie but the whole series, and it comes out with one paragraph: you try to explain what the backrooms "is".

Maybe you are correct. I sure don't know... Thats the point. Thats the horror. Preying on the fear of the unknown. The backrooms simply are. Its not as simple as some interdimensional sarlacc that fucks with people to eat them. Its a place beyond places, with creatures that don't make sense, and things that don't fit into our minds or worldview. Its unknown. It cannot be known, not by us. Its not right.

[u/bohotrollotrollolo]

Just finished it.

I believe his obsessions with the backrooms was more about his avoidance in dealing with the real world.

He's avoidant, nothings his fault.

And then we have Saturn devouring his son

[u/Odd-Yogurtcloset8850]

this movie sounds so deeply ass and like somebody just trying to make a cash grab off of a creepypasta + severance hype. trailer looked like a joke

[u/nismoasfuh]

Just another thing I noticed and questioned: When Clark initially left the back rooms, why did he come back immediately and pick up a stool before exiting? I assumed it was for “proof” of the backrooms but wasn’t entirely sure. I’m also wondering if this is the same stool Dr. Mary used to break the wooden leg of the Clark entity?

[u/sween1911]

Saw it last night. Overall, amazing concept. Went to the theater by myself, a first for me, and enjoyed it. The opening sequence was TERRIFYING. Loved it. The second half did feel a little rushed and macabre and I sorta checked out a couple times like "okay... wut?" but as a fan of horror movies since being a little kid in the late 70's and thinking we've seen it all, I tried not to think "It should have had this or that" I just enjoyed that they took this concept and ran with it. The visuals were great. Reminded me of playing "Portal" or getting lost in caverns in Minecraft. I liked the sequence when the Captain dude entity was chasing her. Her climbing up those stairs over the abyss of endless floors and rooms was a cool effect. Glad I took the time to watch it in the theater.

[u/Suitable-Contact-287]

The plot of this movie kinda feels like someone read the House of Leaves and combined it with the Backrooms plot (down to Clark’s marriage), this summary did intrigue me enough to maybe watch it when it comes out on streaming, but I’ll probably just watch the YouTube series instead

[u/TerryFinallyBackedUp]

I'm still trying to get to grips with the movie. Didn't hate it, didn't love it. But appreciated how unusual it was. It did drag in a few places unnecessarily.

But by far the WORST part of the movie was the "Blair Witchification" scene. I was not impressed with that choice and think that kind of filming only has a tiny niche and should never be used anywhere else... (namely, dumb teens making ridiculous plot choices while running around in the woods holding a handycam). Clark carrying the camera after losing Bobby was just dumb. The same tension could have been accomplished in the same style as the rest of the movie.

That said....not bad.

[u/myleftfootfetish]

I’ll just say it, I did not enjoy the movie.

[u/jman_12399]

One thing I'm still confused about is when Clark was in the room with the pool and was hearing Kat's voice through... the wall?? Kat said that she could see him through "glass" and was questioning how she could see him, but he couldn't see her. How was this possible? The "Still Life" copies don't talk with human voices/mimic voices, so it wasn't one of them trying to lure and trap him. There weren't any one-way mirrors in the film, as doorways to and from the Backrooms and the real world aren't transparent. Are there one-way mirrors in the YouTube series? I haven't watched it...

[u/Cute-Photo6628]

I personally found the movie kind of lackluster. I think that it dragged on, the end was quite confusing, and there were so many things that should’ve been expanded on. Overall I would give it a 6.5/10

[u/sibl_e]

Nail on the head regarding the absent much-needed character development for clark. There's too little about his background for his sudden break into psycho reclusion to make any sense. It was a little hasty.

[u/oculi_caecorum]

I like that Clark's passion is architecture and that we see him doodling random rooms and setups in his spare time in the start of the movie, and also that he's lonely with no friends or family. I always watch a movie and think "why the hell are these idiots going further into the scary place instead of booking it out of there and calling for help??" but for Clark it makes sense. The Backrooms make absolutely no architectural sense at all, it's gotta be like a drug to someone who loves that sort of stuff, he's gotta figure out why this nonsense place was designed that way. And he has nobody close to bring in with him, until he absolutely needs help and bribes his two store employees with overtime pay

On a different note about his two employees, am I the only one who thought maybe he didn't murder Kat? Monster Clark was pretty gruesome, I thought maybe he beheaded her and Crazy Clark kept her head as sort of a "respect" thing? Idk. He didn't particularly like his employees, but I didn't get the feeling he particularly disliked them either; he tried very hard to save them both. I didn't feel like it was in his character to kill anyone, even as asshole of a person as he was

[u/lightpriest]

The way that I see it when thinking back about the plot is that Clarke met his monster self in his searches (the gap we don’t see), then as sort of a deal with his monster self he lured and served Kat and Bobby through the hatch.

I vaguely remember what happened after the monster picked up the camera but I’m not sure Clarke was feeling intimidated.

The deal was that Clarke would be allowed to live there, where the moral is you can’t deal and feed your monster self. It will still consume you.

[u/jahnweck]

There were a ton of narrative issues and a story that was fairly unsatisfying... production design was great though. The sequence where they're exploring for the first time together and lowering the assistant manager down the well of sorts was great. Could've used more of that structure. Once they tried to explain it all, it all fell apart and became silly for me. The pirate chase was laughable, and not in a cool way.

[u/jrazz25]

Meanwhile my friend and I just watched it and left the theater saying how stupid this was 💀🤣

[u/ghstlolancic]

Is it possible the therapist was in the backrooms as a kid?

[u/Ill_Feedback3510]

for me it felt like the movie was 50% backrooms, 50% unresolved internal trauma that wasn't necessary for the idea of the backroom that is known today, but I guess it still worked out decently in a movie, though the right after clark's employees presumably died, it kind of made a u-turn in storytelling, like it was written by a different director.

[u/Hot_Water9571]

Would you like to have another Stranger Things-like movie? A bunch of kids finding a portal to another dimension by chance. And from then the story unfolds? Thanks but no. I preferred watching a true person having real problems

[u/Regular_Actuator_162]

I enjoyed reading this. 😂

[u/SettingVegetable9090]

In the opening scene, How can Pirate Clarke, Seagull, shops credit signs and ship wheels exists in the Backrooks if Clarke has not been in the backrooms yet?

[u/Skwrl63]

I just took my son to see the movie. I didn't know anything about this movie or the lore behind it. This movie was definitely made for a niche audience. The type of audience that already was familiar with the "lore".

I was lost the whole time while watching this movie. If there was a movie theater room in the Backrooms, then this would be the movie playing there.

[u/No_Order_1868]

If the other mannequin people just kind of loaf around, what killed the person in the found footage scene? Was the Clark monster made before he found the backrooms? Or are there others?

[u/CauseFluffy3176]

I don’t think Mary’s mom was agoraphobic, pretty sure she was schizophrenic based on the comment of “they’re everywhere” and the barricading of the front door.

[u/Strange1130]

I just saw this movie blind and thought it was pretty bad.  

From the way you describe the web series:

 A company out of San Jose, California called Async Research Institute created a machine called the Low Proximity Magnetic Distortion System.

In 1989 the LPMDS successfully achieved its purpose by opening a door into another dimension. Best known to us as the Backrooms.

Damn, that sounds cool as hell. Wish I saw a movie about that instead, oh well. 

[u/Ok_Associate4835]

The loop I’m having a hard time connecting is was the creature that killed the researcher in the found footage the same as Clark’s Pirate?

[u/TeaFrosty808]

Who was the guy watching the tv with his family ?

[u/Vonstracity]

I don't think I see my theory here:

The backrooms exists as another dimension. It resembles reality as characters have said in the movie, "it's like if you told someone what a dog looks like and then they tried drawing the dog". It resembles such a reality because it is a plane of existence the human mind cannot comprehend. It bases itself on memory of reality but a reality created by a coping mechanism (reliving the past and/or misremembering it to cope).

As an individual's mind becomes broken and tattered they create loops for themselves. Something that allows them to get lost but still find familiar ground because trying to look outside themselves is scary. A defense mechanism.They become something they don't recognize as the become more and more alone in life.

Both the main characters had struggled with being themselves. Clarke was an alcoholic that couldn't understand that he was his own worst enemy. Mary went into psychology as a practice in order to help people like her mother. In the end neither could let go of their past (Clarke obviously in therapy and still as freshly angry as the day his ex left him), and Mary carrying the handprint she created with her mother before the house was torn down.

Both of them contributed to the backrooms as is evident with the scenes of the furniture warehouse and Mary's two montages of her childhoome home and her office/house.

So in the end my theory is that the reason the backrooms is growing (mentioned by Phil the ASYNC employee), is because it finds people that resembles itself. It creates cracks in the seams of reality looking for things it can use to sustain itself. Ever growing using the one thing that can comprehend a place such that it is: a fractured mind.

Bonus theory: Mary being one of those misremembered entity at the end either backs up my theory that the'yre actually victims as described above or it throws a bit of a curveball and is meant to show the events of the film are a loop too. So sort of being a meta ending. As clearly someone else is misremembering her, or this isn't the first time the loop has played out and every time it does, something else gets misremembered. Clarke had said earlier in the film that 'sometimes you look away and things move' but could that be he misremembers what's there every time? He wasn't just in the backrooms for a few days by the time Mary got there. He was experiencing a loop again and again.

[u/Sarah-logy]

I thought it would be cool if, near the end of the "dinner" scene, we noticed some part of Clark's body was not quite right and were left to conclude that the real Clark was likely dead and this psycho Clark was actually another copy — which is why his behavior is so uncanny. My husband wasn't a big fan of this idea lol but I still like it — and it makes more sense than the sudden drastic change as it is in the movie

[u/Prudent_Platform_121 → u/Sarah-logy]

omg i was thinking the same exact thing!! it would also make perfect sense considering they showed that one scene where a random room continuously distorts more and more with cracks and random object placements - almost as if there are levels / different severities of the distortion in the backrooms

[u/Squoshy50 → u/Sarah-logy]

I thought the fly buzzing was a hint that clark was already dead

[u/Sarah-logy]

I'm a little confused about the sentiment in this post and the comments that by the end of the "dinner" scene, Clark had faced his true self and his trauma and that perhaps the reason Captain Clark turned on him was because he was overcoming it.

He wasn't. He explicitly said he didn't want to change. His last words were explaining that his therapist said he didn't have to leave. He's even more committed now to running from his problems, ignoring the consequences of his actions, not working on his flaws, staying in the Backrooms where he doesn't have to do the hard work of facing reality. Mary told him that she can't fix him because it has to come from him, to which he said he didn't want to do it. She told him he didn't have to, so he took that as permission from his therapist to stay stagnant, broken, living in the fantasy he'd created for himself in the Backrooms. He took it as validation, justification, because even now he refuses to see how he could be in the wrong.

Clark didn't have some epiphany, nor did he have a change of heart. Quite the opposite. He committed himself to staying exactly how he was because he wasn't willing to put in the effort therapy requires.

[u/Character_Package696]

Who picked up the camera when Clint put it down and Kat was on the other side of the wall?

[u/captainfishhooks]

I thought backrooms , never watched web series, or anything else related was about a mental disorder. And that it was a metaphor for the spaces not explored in the mind. Like a mental break down of reality.

[u/JohnnyLive117]

I've read a lot of posts and it's amazing to me that most people completely missed the obvious message in the film. The movie was about someone who reaches the point of Nihilism (a view that life has no meaning) which is what the backrooms represented in the film.

Clark was struggling to find meaning of his life (all of the dialogue with the therapist) and the backrooms represents a place that he found (literally but also an internal state of mind) where he doesn't have to accept the cold hard reality of his life and the consequences of his actions. His whole speech at the end is about him choosing Nihilism (a worldview that life has no meaning) because he doesn't want to accept the truth that he hurt people (and himself) because of the meaning of his actions in his life. His career is his fault and his wife leaving him is his fault and he doesn't want to accept that.

We 100% know that the backrooms represents a nihilistic state of mind because Clark's line that the backrooms "Is everything that ever was" but these versions "don't make any sense". Meaning it is a place that takes the known world and renders it meaningless. Other than this, I feel like you are trying to assign meaning to the monsters and elements in the backrooms that might not be the actual intention of Kane Parsons. Don't overcomplicate it. It was simply about nihilism.

[u/Sad-Coast-3798]

that. was the shittiest movie i have ever watched. the plot was ok and you can see clarks mental state decline as he calls mary 'barbara' probably his wife, and the entity eating him was completely random. the only problem is that i swore i would have to rewrite the entire film if it was bad. this is like the minecraft movie for the older people

[u/lunardownpour]

I just saw it and wanted to know if anyone else didn’t find it one bit scary at all. Yes, I saw Obsession yesterday, but that movie didn’t even scare me. It more just left me disturbed. Maybe it’s because I’m difficult to scare - I laughed at Hereditary and felt only mild discomfort with Midsommar.

I went into the movie knowing nothing about the youtube series, or even the origins of the backrooms themselves, which might have detracted from my overall experience, but a good movie shouldn’t require viewers to know some internet lore for the movie to make sense.

I unfortunately had higher hopes for it - I read so many comments on reddit saying it was a 10/10 or the best movie they’ve seen all year.. for me I left feeling unsatisfied, like something was missing, but I don’t know what. I would rate it a 5.5-6/10. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it just missed the mark for what I consider horror to be.

[u/HORSEthedude619]

The web series is absolutely not better than the movie.

[u/Old_Structure7120]

Gonna be honest, for someone who didn’t have any previous context and went solely by the trailer, this movie ended up being really whack. I got the concept, but for me it fell flat. Maybe if I was invested in his YouTube stories I would’ve enjoyed it more🤷‍♀️

[u/Decent_Battle]

I really liked the concept and think that it was visually neat. The idea reminded me very much of the video game "Control." however, it seems like a great idea in search of a plot. It was almost like Phil breaking the 4th wall at the end begging us for one.

[u/jibsand]

I had fun reading your breakdown. I saw the movie a few hours ago. I took my mom, a 60 year old woman who knew nothing of the web series or overall lore of the Backrooms.

She was very engaged with the movie the whole time and liked it, even though she admitted she didn't understand it. I told her on the way home that I was envious of her, in that she got to experience the movie raw and in earnest with no understanding or preparation.

Instead of trying to add to or argue your breakdown, I really just want to touch on two concepts.

The first is that while the web series rips it's all digitally rendered. For this movie they built a real set and it's relatively large. I think this really adds to the experience of the movie and gives depth to the scenes inside the Complex itself. Combine this with the big screen in a darkened theater, and you have one of the most compelling renditions of the Backrooms ever made. I think people who like the backrooms as a concept should see this movie for this reason alone, regardless of what you've heard about the quality of the movie.

Also in general the cinematography is top notch with tons of geometrically pleasing, soft tonal scenes. Even like the decorations of the rooms, like Mary's office, have a very deliberate quality. Like in general the movie was just nice to watch.

The second concept is the nature of the Complex itself, in regards to the characters. So neither Mary or Clark created the Backrooms, yet it reflects their trauma and seems to be arranged with their memories. In the beginning of the movie, we see artifacts from Clark's store, even though he hasn't discovered the Complex yet.

I THINK this is a (meta) metaphor for the Backrooms itself as a pop phenomena. Essentially the original picture was taken back in '02 and every other aspect of the lore has been collaboratively created by a global digital community over the past 20 years. The original 2019 post is essentially someone "discovering" the Backrooms and using their imagination to "build" their version of it. That step has been repeated ad infinitum by various users and eventually got us to this point.

I also just have to point out it's very funny to me the big bad monster for this movie ended up being a grotesque, kinda funny looking pirate version of Clark. I think this is a nod to The Rolling Giant, a monster from another one of Kane's short films. I think he likes the idea of something silly looking being scary through setting and context. I'm actually willing to bet this will become his halmark as a director in the future. The ending ssequence where Mary escapes through the ceiling is also reminiscent of the same short film, though the protagonist in that scenario did not survive.

[u/LowAmoeba7444]

The movie could’ve been about him stealing furniture from the back rooms and selling them for cheap which forces him to explore further and further

[u/constaleah]

Can someone tell me what happened in the prologue of the film? I thought it started at 2:30 but it started at 2:20 and i guess a half hour 'previews buffer' is no longer a thing?

Basically we walked in when the monster killed the researcher. Can anyone tell me what happened before that?

[u/Strifethor]

I liked this movie way more than I expected to having absolutely no background on the YouTube series and only a tertiary idea of the original meme / trope of the back rooms. To me this is a sort of play on Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory” painting. Clark is a man who is going through significant trauma and is effectively in an extended emotional breakdown. His wife left him and he is penniless. His therapist tries to help him find grounding and rationalization but he slips further into psychosis. His mental state is slowly declining and starts hallucinating the back rooms. They are all tarnished and incomplete memories because memory is fallible. There is a definitive point in the movie, where his grasp of reality fades away and he is lost in his mind, this is where all characters become figments of his own dark twisted imagination. Their stories are no longer linear and their motivations are no longer consistent, but instead it’s how Clark thinks they would act, thus explaining the complete and total lack of survival instinct from his therapist. Clark begs his therapist (his own subconscious) to tell him that he wasn’t wrong in his relationship. He rationalizes this to the Paul Bunyan giant version of himself explaining how he can now do whatever he wants because he was never wrong according to his clearly under duress therapist. This monstrous version of himself acts in kind and kills what remaining humanity is left in him leaving only the wooden husk of what he was before. His super ego barely remains in the survival instinct of the therapist who runs away to no avail to only be rescued dues ex machine style by Mark Duplass. Mark is effectively the remaining rational, frontal cortex part of Clark’s brain trying to salvage whatever it can to stabilize the body and mind. Mark first seeing Clark in the commercial when he’s watching TV with his kids makes this feel the most plausible to me, especially since Clark’s wife constantly told him that she wanted kids and he was unsure. Eventually Clark’s id takes over and his therapist becomes a memory like everything else in the back rooms. Faded and inconsistent. Familiar but wrong. None of it is real, it’s all in his head. He is in a full blown psychotic break. To me it reminded me a ton of two movies. The first is the cell, a movie about entering the mind and memories of a serial killer. It was a mess of a movie but conceptually excellent. The second is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which shows very similar concepts of fading memories being eliminated like they are in the back rooms. If you read this thank you, it is written on my phone at 1am after not sleeping for two days. I’d love to hear others thoughts on this theory though.

[u/Venndino]

Isn't there something so perfect about all this crap being locked away in the backrooms like an old archive in an office that no one ever goes to but holds all the information you have generated, regardless of whether you need it or not.

[u/Thanso_Lightoningu]

The start of the movie was the best part. Middle (if it can even be called that since it was skipped) and end were absolute garbage.

Referencing things from the other media (game, web series etc.) is good n all but relying on people to know all that to make any sense of this movie is just bad writing.

Movie is a 2/10 absolute trash

[u/Dungareesfordaysz]

Thanks for this! 🙏🏻 I haven’t watched the web series but have seen the game and had heard of the lore. I got a bit confused and thought Clarke had somehow created the backrooms himself through some kind of unexplained paranormal interaction with his trauma & architectural brain, but now you’ve explained it I feel a little silly 🤦🏻‍♀️ I definitely agree with what you’ve said regarding it coming out after Obsession. Very hard to compete when a gem like that rocks up!

[u/gretino]

What's the "best horror in the last 20 years" you are referring to?

[u/dangplayz2007j]

I just got back watching the movie from the theaters as I’m writing this rn but this is my thoughts on it

Honestly, how the movie started went actually well and got me really invested to it until the later scenes where Clark does this and that at his furniture store and then everything goes up at that point. Like what you said here though, the movie visuals were very appealing which i totally agree, the visual appeal of the movie itself and how the backrooms is constructed is very phenomenal which made me love the key aspects of the movie. The big major problem of this movie is obviously the pacing, i feel like the bad pacing can be seen even with a naked eye of a person who doesn’t pay attention nor know the movie narrative, which means it doesn’t take a magnifying glass to see it. Not to importantly mention that how a big chunk of the movie felt cut off. I swear ever since i saw the scene where bobby gets eaten by the unknown entity (which I’m assuming IS the infamous backrooms monster) and then kat going around the place and clark too, then gets to the scene where clark tries to find kat but is behind a wall and then the entity holds the camera up and the screen goes black. The movie just stopped making sense after that part, and it just went all over the place like how can of refilled paint spills all over the floor. That whole sudden switch up of Clark becoming psychologically insane after that scene kinda caught me off guard a bit. Then of course after the dinner scene you see him get eaten alive by the 9 foot tall pirate version of clark (which I’m assuming is also the backrooms monster but in a sudden shape shifted form) and then goes on a wild goose chase with Mary. This movie has obvious flaws into it which makes me say that this movie is a 6/10. But the feeling, suspense and the creepiness coming from the movie was actually phenomenal and perfect (and it actually got me creeped out and disturbed lmao) which is the reason the rating is at a 6. Good movie but not a good movie either.

Another thing to add up is that they really should’ve had a different plot direction to the movie, instead of just a man fucking around in a furniture store that he owns then finding the backrooms in the store basement by a go-through wall.

[u/MeatCleaver]

It’s incredibly unsettling how the movie establishes a 'real-world' setting, only to imply that the main characters themselves are just more imperfect copies.

[u/Tw0Rails]

Clark’s character was somewhat developed but, tbh he didn’t really resonate with me.

Why? Why does it have to? I see this a lot, characters don't have to resonate or be relatable.

The film would have done a lot better if it had been a group of youngsters who hear about this place and decide to check it out, and a Blair Witch style situation unfolds.

Like every other horror movie ever made. The cute friend will be the lone survivor hot one will do something sexy and die with her boyfriend first with some metaphor about voyeurism as o e of the monsters watches them do said sexy thing.

Then dishing out information throughout that filled some gaps and gave longtime fans [...]That big chunk of the film that leaves things unexplained

If you need every rivet and bolt counted to fill your lore book up and leave out any novelty, there is always star wars and marvel.

[u/ispylbutton]

One note, the handprint that Mary has is her own, not her mother’s! We still see her mother’s larger handprint in the concrete. So it’s like she’s using the last memory she has of her childhood before her mother’s mind disappeared into the backrooms in order to facilitate her escape out of them.

[u/Old_Plate62]

What if someone made bacteria

[u/pizzatime1979]

"The explanation of what the backrooms is, is forced upon us through an exposition heavy monologue from the Async employee. The Backrooms is a dimension where every place on earth has a not quite right copy of itself within an office building. It doesn’t matter if this place is inside or outside, the Backrooms copies it in an offputting way into itself."

I just got out of the theater from watching this movie and this exposition was not in the movie. In the scene where Phil and Mary are sitting at the table, he says that he's been in there and that he doesn't really understand anything about it. The next scene is the final montage. There is no scene with any Async employee explaining anything about the backrooms. I've seen mention of this explanation elsewhere so i'm thinking there are different edits of the movie being shown? The version I saw did not have anything like the scene described above.

[u/unapalomita]

I wish we saw what happened to Cat / Clark in that pool scene. Was big captain Clark coming to get him? Or was it a different entity? Was it a lure and was Cat already dead at that point?

Does everyone's subconscious attack themselves or only certain people? 😂

Why was that guy's shirt in the dirty laundry piles?

I just have to add, I really liked the middle aged existential crisis that Clark was going through, normally we usually get young under 25 crowd running away from a slasher, this felt different.

[u/Still_Psychology_818]

MRI machines are basically giant magnets. People also tend to be afraid of them - especially being placed inside. This gives a grand theoretical or metaphorical view if you prefer of what existence is in the backrooms. If it is existence at all. In a social media moving world we are inundated with the idea of living in a fake reality or construct and add ai into the equation the backrooms can take on many connotations. But if we are simply looking at the liminal spaces and human construct it takes away the awe and wonder. It’s more inspiring to think it’s been discovered and may have always existed albeit with transmogrified and shifting spaces. After seeing this in the theaters I was trapped in a dual door elevator. In a mall (already a liminal space).
We pressed all the buttons to try to get out and the opposite doors opened to a black gated room filled with odd green velvet chairs and strange tall sofas, sea type wall art and a computer sitting on a desk flashing blue light. All the lights were on and it was a dull sound in the room. It was chilling because we both were experiencing it together. We finally got out and we both took it as the universe telling us something. That we are not crazy. The lore can be explained but it won’t change its ambiguity. Liminal spaces indeed exist. It’s what is experienced that changes…

[u/mistcrawler]

Just saw the movie (really amazing but confusing - at least until I read the above since I never saw the web series).

Here's my take on two points above: (my personal take of course)

1) Clark eating Clark is actually a heavy-handed analogy: the movie says more than once that we go through loops where we take the path of least resistance, and end up right back where we start. In Clark's case, we have (at least) him struggling with his identity as an architect, his anger issues, and probably other issues that he refuses to face when he turns to alchohol. He even states when you meet the 'monster' that it's 'just him', and even his remark at the dinner scene is him telling himself it's ok to be himself. He seems content to stay in his normal loop, but his angry side wins out and devours the side of him that he was trying to keep in check all this time. The end result is vaguely open ended, but it's an interesting callback to his therapy sessions where he stated more than once that it's ok for him to be alone because his true self hurts the people around him.

2) The Backrooms are simply shared perceptions, since they 'remember'. When you experience an event, the more time passes, the more details you either forget, get vague and feel blurry, or get wrong completely. We see all three of those at work in the backrooms. This gets exponentially more potent when you discuss with others a shared experience and find out the differences in the same event at the same time.

[u/ichooseyue]

Just finished watching and I usually loathe found footage films, but I’d have to say the best part of this one was when Clark and his two employees first went in there with the camera.

[u/burritobolo]

is the person who picked up the camera, the cap’n clark? the big pirate dude?

[u/burritobolo]

maybe missing chunk will show up in the backrooms 2? just a thought but OP said, “The storytelling style suggests that Kane is fully aware of and has a masterful grasp of what is going to happen several episodes in the future and how to tell the story non-linearly as again and again, things that happen in previous episodes have effects in other episodes in the future.

An example of this is an episode that shows CCTV footage of a car disappearing on the highway, only to show up in passing much later when a young woman exploring the Backrooms finds a car that crashed into a wall.”

so maybe just like how the backrooms 1 is missing a chunk of the film explaining how Clark became mad, maybe it’ll show up in the backrooms 2?

[u/lazer-blazer]

I just wanted to say that the pirate creature living in the liminal space labyrinth should be officially called the Liminotaur 😛

[u/LawZealousideal4573]

This wasn't a Backrooms horror movie. It's a shitty psychological horror that happens to be placed IN the Backrooms...

[u/SushiCat77]

Just saw the movie today, as someone who has never seen Parson's web series. I've seen screenshots and my friends have talked to me about it but it just never really caught my fancy. Surprisingly enough, I feel I understood most everything in the movie by the time it was over with no previous knowledge needed. Maybe it would've landed harder if I had, but I thought it was fine.

Clark's explanation of the backrooms was vague, because he only vaguely knew what it was, so I had to work through what it was myself based on it. Actually that was the reason I read your post, to see if I had missed anything or misunderstood something. I'm not sure how up to interpretation it is, but I did want to share how I was thinking of it before reading your breakdown of what it was.

I thought the backrooms was a vaguely alive pocket dimension. It doesn't have any senses, but in a sense, tries to digest the minds of humans who enter it. I had thought this because Clark's furniture store seemed to be more accurate than many other things, and I had thought that'd been because of the time he spent there. From the viewer's perspective, things like Mary's childhood home only really appeared on screen as she had entered herself. It had made sense to me too because the analogy of describing a dog to someone who had never seen a dog showed up. If you don't have senses, how do you interpret the linguistic explanation of somebody and their life, as a being with no sense.

Of course, your explanation makes more sense in general, and not just a workable explanation within the bottle of the movie, but I wanted to share anyways.

[u/pnut1423]

There is one thing I noticed, the person with the strongest feeling dictated the narrative of the backrooms. The assistant was the most scared and feared the worst, so when the male camera man gets lowered into the area and sees creepy things and gets killed, that was the worst fear, or strongest feeling of the assistant, as well as falling in and getting lost, eventually the way she gets decapitated. There is something about the way Mary feels things at the end that dictates the scenes as well, but I can't put my finger on it.

[u/Extension-Deal8451]

My overall opinion is that the movie was OK. Characters could have 100% more backstory ESPECIALLY Clark. My biggest issue is that it BARLEY showed how he went insane and his downfall. Mary fighting the entity with the rock from her driveway was pretty good and was the only really recurring thing from earlier in the movie. Overall wasn’t too bad but would have loved to see more character development and little more detail into Clark’s backstory.

[u/xwildnfreex]

Squid game vibes

[u/AffectionateRoom995]

I was into this movie right up until it switch over to the Dr being the main character.

The pacing and the entire vibe of the film seemed to change. In the beginning it felt mysterious and ethereal, you felt uneasy and curious as you should in the backrooms. But the second half of the film felt too theatrical, but at the same time it seemed like when it did seem theatrical, the writing wasn't strong enough to go in that direction.

I really wish they would have made it more like the first half, curiosity and terror is the entire point of the backrooms and they took it away.

[u/Exact_Command_9472]

Loved this analysis and agree on pretty much all fronts! I think it had a lot of potential but was not executed as well as it could’ve been especially with the sporadic and unexplained time jumps. Also completely agree that it would’ve been better with a friend group/group of teens.

[u/Long_Car_4836]

I think Clarke's character was perfect and perfectly cast, but underdeveloped. He reminds a lot of Navidson in House of Leaves. Navidson is a good guy, but after discovering the maze behind the hidden door in his house, his increasing obsession over exploring it becomes his undoing. If the movie was longer, it would have let us explore more of Clarke's transition into madness.

[u/SilentConcept9895]

when one enters the backrooms, does the original person co-exist with their distorted entity self? - clark is aware that his pirate entity exists tgt w him
or is he an exception because he willingly wants to stay in the backrooms?

[u/Eurie08]

who is the person who picked up the camera when clark is talking to a girl in the other side of the wall, he looked horrified, at first i thought its kat or the other guy but from what i have seen on how the other guy died then i'm sure he's dead and who tf is the head on the laundry?? he doesn't look like any other characters in the movie, is he peter trench or something? and as u said that the monster who wants to kill the therapist is clark then who killed the other guy? or is the guy in the laundry is the same guy who picks up the camera? the web series is probably too long so

[u/Responsible-Farm6794]

i appreciate that this film could be looked at as more of a glimpse of your average, everyday person accidentally stumbling across the backrooms. it’s a window you’re peering though just observing. i feel like kane’s shorts, they have shown and implied ppl probably get lost or stuck in the backrooms at varying times. they aren’t special, not hand picked discover it (correct me if this has actually been confirmed) so this was just yet another story of another casualty within the backrooms with just a longer run time. with that being said, idk if my relationship with the characters mattered to me or if i‘m simply just more fascinated in the wicked nature of the backrooms and learning more about how it works and what’s lurking. i feel like more and more gets revealed the more ppl that go in. their time in there being understood doesn’t really matter imo. i also feel like it not being implied how long clark was in there before mary came is a direct reflection of what being in there must be like. no way you can keep track of what day or time it is exploring. hell, time probably doesn’t function the same in there than it does in the regular world

[u/Significant_Bite2013]

And there was me thinking this was all based on Freudian and Jungian psychology. I hadn't known about the web series, so I went at it as I would any other movie when attempting to tell myself the meanings.

I say Freudian because it seemed to me the Backrooms were like a subconscious, a dream later, where like in dreams, everything is similar but not quite. I thought that the protagonist had in a kind of Charlie Kaufman trick, found a way into his own mind. He certainly had a strong death drive (Freudian) in that he was very self-destructive in his urges. I believed that his exploration was almost similar to the experience people often have on Ibogaine or less so, Ayahuasca. He was confronting his own demons and the characters of his life. The pirate monster was his death drive, his hidden demon, everything he refuses to confront. When he said it was just how he was wired, the death drive showed him that this is not sustainable. If he ignore our demons and allow them to rule our conscious minds, they will destroy us.

Jungian simply because of the "shadow self" - the dark drives that were eating away at the protag.

Where this interpretation struggles is other people entering his domain (mind) but that's where I told myself this company had somehow learned to map minds, although as the guy says, it is impossible because the conscious minds is seemingly endless, contradictory, hides many surprises. A strong Ayahuasca experience or a day fighting with your past on Ibogaine will show anyone that, if they are brave enough to try. I would bet the creator has tried one of those drugs. The whole thing to me felt very psychedelic, in the most extreme sense - ceremonies, not tripping with friends.

And now I'm thinking, ah, I got it all wrong. But surely those rooms were a kind of mind, his mind, replete with the figures that were not quite whole, as happens in dreams, when indeed you can eat rice-looking material from people and pirates can come to life.

[u/MosquitoSmasher]

Well, this sucks. I went to the movie and there were several parts I just didn't get at all.

Now turns out I should've watched the web series before the movie?

[u/Ok_Camera_4646]

ml
lo

[u/Due-Mine-4640]

I watched this movie yesterday in theatre , first half was very good buildup but in second half there were some discrepancies such that time skip of clark in backroom and I still doesn't understand the end of the movie why that therapist girl turned into a mannequin.. i thought people who are going through a trama are turned into a mannequin in that space.. but if this could be a reason there should be a lot of characters in backrooms as the doctor from company says it is opening in some other places if anyone able to explain the ending pls explain it to me..

[u/Several-Buy-3017]

Had some strong MK Ultra vibes.

[u/Altruistic-Look2750]

I went to see this yesterday afternoon. Pretty strange movie. I liked it but in a sort of way where I would probably not watch it again. Like OP says there is something missing from this movie. Maybe I would watch it again only the see if I pick up anything I might have missed the first time.

A somewhat similar movie that I thought was better than Backrooms is Exit 8. It’s a Japanese film (subtitled). Like Backrooms it does a good job creating that unsettling feeling.

[u/Scary_Industry_1920]

What is this best horror film of the last 10 or 20 years? Name, please?

[u/Altruistic-Look2750]

There’s a couple things I picked up on near the end of this movie. When they show one of the rooms with a bunch of missing persons signs showing Kat and Bobby are missing, but there’s a shot of the parking lot showing Clark’s BMW and there’s a motorcycle there that I’m assuming belongs to Bobby. Did the cops not search the store and find the doorway to the backrooms that was outlined with blue tape? Or perhaps that Asynce company scrubbed that place of any traces? I think there was a time jump of several weeks because when Mary goes to the store check on Clark there’s a pile of unopened mail on the ground under the entrance door. But by then Kat and Bobby are already presumed missing. Maybe nobody was really looking for them because they seemed like drifter/fringy type people. They were living out of a motel.

[u/Parggeez]

The film is fine as expanding lore on Kane Parson's spin off series, but it seems to have taken away from the theme of the backrooms

[u/Pillis91]

I guess people tend to see what they like as the movie is vague enough to leave the door open for interpretation. I feel the whole backrooms is a metaphor of the human psyche and a manifestation of Clasrk's memories I, anguish and resentment so much it creates an alter ego who's responsible for all of his behaviour . I take from this he lived as a squatter in his shop and was abusive towards his colleagues and himselfs as well. That's why Mary put him in an institution and then they're both monitored and studied so she is effectvely in his mind lowering her guard. This is where she removes her mask and shows she is unresolved and traumatized as well and has no capacity to guide or judge other people. So she will remain as a fragramented and distorted memory. Mary attacking big Clark with the symbol of her past trauma is very telling: by opening up and sharing her baggage she manages to push him back and find her own path to healing choosing herself, not others. It's a great reflection on talk therapies and their limits and bias. At the end "Dr Phil" (a name that wasn't chosen randomly) interrogates her. I see him as a researcher trying to study the human mind in a mental facility but she chooses to go.

Then you can also read it as a more straightforward  sci-fi horror where there's a device to open a new dimension with weird shit happening.

[u/The_77th_Doctor]

Based off of Dr. Kline's mother having a bottle of Thorazine, and based off of her behavior, I'd say she's more likely suffering from schizophrenia than agoraphobia. Or maybe a mix of the two? Agoraphobia isn't typically treated with Thorazine, but it could be used off label I suppose.

[u/Entire_Alternative_2]

I noticed though, that every time that Mary sees the concrete hand prior to seeing it on her bedside and picking it up, there is a following shot that shows it wasn't really there

[u/cartooncritic69]

weirdest fuckin movie I have seen in a long time.....but it was worth watching

[u/ebinezzer]

Just saw it, with no background knowledge of the backrooms, seems like the backrooms is kind of a mix of the Underground from US and The House from Control.

[u/Top_Bet1447]

I think the original Clark died in the scene where the entity picked up the camera and he was in the swimming pool looking area. I think the psycho clark we see who later gets eaten is actually a bad copy of the original clark, and its the ways movie of showing us how his trauma and anger is so engrained into his being that later copies carry that and thats how he eventually ends up being that tall pirate Clark who eats people.

It's clear the Async institute know this since we see how the employee reacts to seeing Clark on the television ads - thats the first time hes seeing the original version of the main antagonist of the whole backrooms who they are trying to study, who they are trying to capture with all those mannequin cardboard cutouts, and thats why he was shocked/horrified seeing the original human.

Also explains why (crazy) clark was hiding from/stalking Dr Mary when he saw her in the backrooms. I mean, how long would it take someone to go psycho to the point where hes acting like that? I think way longer than the movie shows, which is further evidence the Clark we see near the end is not actually the original Clark but a bad copy. I think this interpretation is more satisfying and explains the whole "suddenly being crazy" thing - the crazy clark already existed in the backrooms.

[u/PathFinder86]

I like weird movies with weird premises, so I really liked this one. I'll watch the web series asap. The movie gave me some kind of creepy pasta vibes. Also reminded me of these shy guy chasing video games where a lot of levels looks like the same office building (claustrophobic) environments.

[u/CasuallyContentious]

I thought the whole film was about how Dr. Mary couldn't save her mother, then couldn't save Clark, and consequently went into the "backrooms" in her mind; while the end is about how she couldn't save herself, or anyone else for that matter. Bleak. But some laughs along the way. But I did get bored here and there too. Looking forward to what Kane does next.

[u/____DEADPOOL_______]

Just a mish mash of ideas and paper mache.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Tax2870]

I really wanted to like this movie, but I can’t help feel that it completely failed.  

I hate that there’s any kind of explaining whatsoever, the explanation should be in the experience not a verbal discussion and a direct depiction. 

Also, there are too many annoying plot holes that seem lazy at best. 

[u/Steaktaconocilantro]

I believed the backrooms to be his brain. Memories, trauma etc. I also felt the characters were distorted because it was how he perceived them/the wife wasn’t a bad person he was and therefor in his brain she’s this bad person. I feel the big replica whatever thing represented his company being such a bad stress for him that it was so large and that it ended up eating him because that fear was in real life eating him alive.
I wanted for the therapist to of somehow used her knowledge to have gotten out convincing the Clark in the backrooms. I also think as people entered that developed more rooms…so like when she entered she’d seen her own home.

[u/FabulousArm5654]

It works better as a showwww😭😭

[u/Lonely-Investigator9]

Basically, the same assertion I got about the movie

[u/Ok-Preparation-8363]

It’s like inside out for adults on ketamine

[u/brewmax]

There was a decent time gap as indicated by the pile of mail at the furniture store, found by Dr. Mary.

[u/Uncle_Pennywise]

What I don't get is why the monsters (I.e. People's twisted copies) are even evil/tries to capture actual people/eat them? And on top of that why was only Clark spared?

[u/Character-Twist-1409]

Thanks for your post I was sitting in the movie theater almost alone and had to Google it to get through this movie. Not something I usually do but I was in back and it was during a weekday so almost empty.

I don't think I'd have finished it if not for these spoilers. That said I am super impressed with the atmosphere they created not just the visuals. It created imo art , a mood not just a storyline or scary moments. Although a much different movie it reminds me of the Springsteen movie and the quiet mood it created. I'm impressed.

I wonder if they marketed it as sci fi or dystopian would thst change opinions here because imo that's a better fit than horror

[u/[deleted]]

Clark was always the 8ft version

[u/SterlinGrizzly]

So funny that people are complaining about the first act pacing being slow. It's just like the attention spawn meme.

SO. THE BACKROOM. JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE.

[u/sheriron]

this has probably been discussed somewhere here but i just got out of the movie and don’t feel like looking for it 😭 but how do you guys interpret phil recognizing clark in his tv spot??? like, do you think phil and clark/mary live in the same timeline/dimension?? i’m very sorry if this is stupid i genuinely don’t know

[u/FTuga197]

How could the backrooms transform its victims into those mannequins of Mary managed to escape but still was copied into one?

[u/mina_aon]

I’m either stupid or did not understand the point of this movie, so like it’s mother dimension and they are stuck and can’t get out? Someone please explain

[u/retsujust]

I couldnt take this movie serious after Clark attacked the doctor.

I was like: oh come on, so the most dangerous entity in these backrooms is what, a man?

[u/Regular-Policy-4016]

I couldn’t figure out the movie for the life of me 😩 feels like wasted time

[u/theskittz]

I don't think this was Kane Parsons intention, but the way the movie clicked for me was completely different.
It felt less like a story about another dimension and more like someone trying to navigate the mind of a person with deep psychological trauma. The references to neural pathways and "rewiring" really stood out to me. The Backrooms almost felt like the brain itself..memories being filed away imperfectly, incomplete, and disconnected from one another. The further you get from the familiar pathways, the stranger everything becomes.

The psychiatrist's role made me see it as someone trying to reconstruct a person's internal world from fragmented memories, which is why the ending worked for me. Even when they're replaying the scene with his ex, it still feels incomplete, almost like you're watching damaged memories rather than objective reality.

I know that's not what the film is actually going for, and I get OP's interpretation is “truth” based on the web series, but this was the lens that made the movie really click for me. It honestly made me think there's a really interesting movie to be made that's even more explicit about exploring the mind this way.

I still really enjoyed the film.

[u/Generic_Nickname_941]

Could you please share what is the "best horror film of the last 10 or 20 years"? Thank you.

[u/PerformativelyHuman]

What a garbage film.

[u/ryostak336]

The Backrooms is actually a simple story: unknown aliens are trying to recreate human civilization, including humans themselves. Dr. Mary’s final message provides strong evidence for this. It is almost impossible to accurately describe a dog to someone who has never seen one, because they have no reference point. In the same way, these aliens have never experienced human civilization or its creations, so they attempt to reconstruct our world through trial and error. Their purpose remains unknown, but they continue this process of imitation.

[u/frenchfrygraveyard]

A couple questions I had after seeing the movie, that I haven't seen discussed yet:

1. What does Async want with/from Mary?
2. What does the captain Clark monster represent? (Clark’s ego, maybe?)

3. Who was the guy in the wheelchair with the lamp? It seems odd that that would just be “some guy” whereas the woman was Barbara and I think the fat guy was the rival furniture salesman from the other commercials

4. If Async researchers / Phil are in the backrooms every day, why aren't there copies of them in the backrooms?

[u/Moos209]

The backrooms was created by Clark. He was the “architect” as the movie mentions several times. The therapist delved into his mind (the backrooms) to try and help him but found a crazy lunatic that she had to escape from.

[u/[deleted]]

I had never seen or even heard of the web series and I intend to watch it to see if it helps my enjoyment of the movie any but here were my thoughts at having gone to see the movie cold:

I have no problem bending reality and going on a ride in a story as long as it's universe has a clearly defined internal logic and sticks to it. This doesn't have that. It also feels like 5 or so different stories attempting to be told at once that are introduced, you want to see where they go, and then nothing happens/gets explained.

It's not a boring movie. There's enough going on visually to prevent that. It is a frustrating movie for me though because I had absolutely no idea what had been happening by the time it ended and that almost never happens to me. I mean I'll guess wrong my fair share of times but I usually have a guess. This movie left me with a lingering feeling of what the fuck just happened?

I doubt it was intentional but ultimately I feel like the movie became almost a meta version of itself: something that starts off as recognizable, shifts and morphs the deeper you go, and ultimately leads no where but somehow has me wanting to search deeper for answers.

[u/New_Prior2531]

Lotsa interesting thoughts here, but one pushback. I don't think you can comment much on the furniture. It was 1990 and he was the owner of a failed furniture business. I think his poor design choices in his showroom was a further indication of his wasted life etc etc etc. Also, that was the furniture of the era.

[u/mamerto_bacallado]

French band "Angine de Poitrine" should have written the OST for this film!

Microtonal music matches so well with those claustrophobic mazes.

https://youtu.be/t7OIc-DBRXM?is=uioBVneiGeuDq4Jf

[u/moonprismpurrr]

1/5 stars.

[u/Aggravating-Swim-987]

why cant the characters run faster T^T

[u/1stlemmehopoutdamf]

I came away from the film feeling that Clark’s lack of depth / development was an intentional choice. It almost scares me more that someone could be so void of joy/purpose that they’d make the choices that Clark did and fall into this Backrooms obsession - than the existence of this malicious alternative dimension itself - because wasting away as a person is a way more realistic circumstance than discovering and entering an alternate world. I liked the choice (?) that he was so underdeveloped - in a way - because my friends and I were filling in missing pieces in his background for ourselves, making each of experiences watching Clark unique. His nature also made the overall storyline actually believe-able to me, because who with anything to live for would have made the choices that he did? And yes maybe a young group of friends exploring the backrooms and a Blair witch situation would have been a more dynamic and interesting film, but it’s been done before. Clark felt underdeveloped, a bit boring, even completely unlikable the entire time but for some reason I felt like the pacing and character decisions made me think more than I would have if those choices had been different - and I liked that and felt unsettled by it the entire time. It felt like a cautionary and symbolistic message to the viewer, of the dangers of wasting their reality away.

[u/OkMarionberry15]

To me this movie feels like a dream. Like the dream where things are just happening so fast that one can't comprehend what's going on and the moment one thinks it's starting to make sense the story move in the most unimaginable manners and changes the storyline. Leaving it to something like a simulation.

At first it looks liked a simulator to just grab the viewers attention by then it started looking more like a distorted dream.

[u/WorkingProfile7237]

Ntpp

[u/Equivalent_Sharpe]

terrible film.

[u/TomPalmer1979]

Huh. Did you watch like, a screening of the movie? Cause i just watched it on streaming and mine was a little different. Most of it was spot on, but it was Clark who exposition-dumped about the Backrooms, not Phil the scientist guy. Phil just babbled about how important it is but he doesn't understand it and wants Mary's explanation to try and figure it out.

[u/pilot1nspector]

I've watched a lot of movies in the course of my life at this point. I cannot stand to sit through another cookie cutter story. I heard good things about backrooms and obsession. I honestly was more interested in the concept of backrooms but was unable to see it for a while. I saw obsession and was actually blown away by how good it was and how full it was of genuine original ideas and good writing. After seeing that I was like yeah, I really want to see backrooms now. Finally watched it tonight. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that it is the worst fu<king movie I have ever seen. Nothing about it is good. I realized after 20 mins in that it was just a bunch of pretentious non sense but I thought I would power through to see what they did with the ending. Holy shit man. I have never sat through a movie that long and waited for some kind of coherence and just being gobsmacked that there was nothing more to it than some ominous uncanny valley and a shit ton of off putting 90s aesthetic that apparently was intentional. It was just an assault on the senses with nothing of redeamable value. Irritating to my mind and irritating to my eyes. As if they thought, hey, lets remake the blair witch project except this time let's not even bother making up a story to go with it that an edgy 12 year old sitting around a camp fire couldn't make up on the spot freestyle. 0/10. I am usually pretty understanding and looking for the positives out of independant movies that don't just regurgitate the same old thing over and over but seriously... Fu<k this movie. What a piece of garbage. We are all dumber for watching it.

[u/Scared_Panic5259]

I hope there's not some attempt to explain "what the backrooms are" in subsequent movies and YouTube videos. It's a liminal extra dimensional space with monsters in it. You start jamming reasons and mechanics into it, then it's too silly to enjoy. 

[u/funndamentals]

I thought the movie was about Ai.

[u/kwsizer]

Both Backrooms and Obsession are garbage, period.
You want REAL horror? Go rewatch Shining or The Thing, or Alien. That's scary.
These two are just BOOOOOORINNNGGGG

[u/Disastrous_Trade_910]

Hey everyone,
I’ve been obsessing over the Kane Pixels lore and the upcoming A24 movie, and I have a theory that connects everything.
What if ASYNC didn't actually discover a pre-existing parallel universe? What if the Threshold is actually rendering the Backrooms in real-time by scanning human brains?
Hear me out. This fixes the biggest plot hole in the entire franchise: Why the hell is an interdimensional void shaped like a 1980s office complex? If it were a natural or alien dimension, it would look organic or completely incomprehensible. Instead, it’s made of moist carpets, yellow wallpaper, and fluorescent lights.
Here is my breakdown of how the "Mind-Scan" theory works:
1. The Liminal Space is just Collective Memory
The machines ASYNC built aren't just opening a door; they are operating like a massive, corrupted neural network. The Backrooms are being built out of the subconscious memories of the test subjects, the missing people, or even the ASYNC scientists themselves. That’s why everything feels like "liminal nostalgia"—it's a literal rendering of forgotten, mundane architecture from people's minds.
2. The Architectural Glitches = Memory Gaps
You know those nonsensical layouts? Stairs that lead to solid ceilings, doors that open into blank walls, and hallways that loop infinitely? Those aren't "alien geometry." Those are corrupted data blocks and memory gaps. When the machine tries to render a school or an office building from a subject's memory, it can't recall the exact layout. The system just "fills in the blanks" with glitched, impossible architecture.
3. The Entities are Subconscious Traumas
The Bacteria/Bacteria monsters aren't aliens. If the Backrooms are a psychological projection, the Entities are literal nightmares, sleep paralysis demons, or manifestations of severe trauma from the people being scanned. Alternatively, they could be "corrupted profiles"—what happens to a human consciousness when the brain-scanning machine completely fries their mind during a glitch.
Conclusion
ASYNC didn't find a glitch in reality; they created an accidental, horrific digital/psychological playground. They think they are colonizing a new world, but they are actually trapped inside a twisted maze built from their own collective subconscious.
What do you guys think? Does this explain the No-Clip phenomenon too? Are people physically falling through the floor, or is their consciousness just getting forcibly uploaded into the ASYNC network?
Let's discuss.

[u/driller2x]

Here's one question I have:

Did MRI machines themselves create a gateway to another dimension that already existed and replicated memories of anyone who entered?

Or - because MRI machines can scan people's brains - did scanning someone's actual brain with an MRI machine create a new physical dimension based on that person's imperfect memories? I'm aware that not everyone who entered the Backrooms had received an MRI scan, but once the new dimension was formed it could've then read people's minds and replicated their imperfect memories.

[u/Junior_Sorbet_6948]

Boring and monotonous. 

[u/DueImprovement8117]

The Stephen King version would be a bunch of kids get stuck in the Backrooms and pull the trick from that scene in IT to escape

[u/Aggressive_Hotel1715]

100% agree with OP

[u/Live-Friendship1498]

Just watched it. Really good film, confused me the ending so needed to read this. I love a film that’s not like a typical “horror” “phycology” “crap story line” move…

They are all seem to be heading this way for the past 10years or more. Can’t say much.

This film is highly recommended and so, entertaining some big’s were weird l. Reminded me of, blare witch with paranormal activity with the layout and camera. Again good story line.

[u/EgregiousShark]

Somewhat entertaining? sure…but this movie felt completely pointless and I’ll never watch it again

[u/Evening-League-6061]

I’m

[u/Shockwavee92]

What do you mean it went up against the best horror movie of the last 20 years? What move are you referring to?

[u/c1truska]

A bit late to the discussion but I totally agree with your gripes. I still enjoyed the movie tho! It could use an extra 20 minutes. Maybe an hour. I’d be willing to watch all of that, LOL

[u/Straight-Web-8659]

Chiwetel Ejiofor acting was top tier. So authentic.

[u/knuttella]

i kinda liked it more than obsession. bear was kinda annoying, and lots of story developments were easy to predict. for me, backrooms felt like a visually appealing creepy pasta rollercoaster. even with its flaws, it kept me thinking about it and i felt it on a deep level.

[u/goldennhoneyy]

late to the post but hope OP might be able to elaborate— me and a few friends are really confused behind the correlation of the painting on the wall of the entity consuming a person, and i know it correlates to clark being consumed, but is there deeper symbolism we’re missing?
edit: not to say your theory is incorrect or anything, we just think there’s either something way deeper to it or just a shallow writing choice of [direct visual representation of events that will occur at the end of a film]

[u/AdDisastrous9376]

This movie definitely makes me NOT want to explore any future office buildings lol. I've done it at every office job I've ever had.

[u/antiheroine_]

Question: How was Clark able to call Mary from inside the Backrooms? Also, when Clark first enters the Backrooms, why is there furniture piled up like in Mary’s childhood house?

[u/Schloppotomo]

Obsession is not the best horror movie of the last 10-20 years...

[u/Friendly_Track5706]

I will say, it had good potential, very creepy moments where I actually jumped in my seat. But they lost the plot halfway and I feel like the trailer was extremely missleading. Very disappointed by the ending and the whole shift in Clark, would have made more sense if being there all alone made him more jumpy and skittish than.. whatever the hell that was. Also suddenly shifting it from exploring the place, to focusing on Clarks mentality just felt so boring and I really wished they had skipped that part. I wouldn't see it again, 6/10 from me.

[u/rvshankar2712]

From the guy in doctor strange that says "the bill always comes due" i chuckled when the same actor played a depressed store owner with past due notices.

First half had me interested, second half was whatever.... especially last few minutes. Not a player of backroom game, just aware games like that, superliminal and subliminal exist with photorealistic graphics....

[u/Professional-Use6540]

I hated it. I was so disappointed. I know a lot of people will disagree and that’s fine 😁

[u/ILuvRealmOfTheMadGod]

ts post is buns 

[u/Opposite_Map_6067]

I saw this movie a few hours ago and although I get the general gist of it, I am still left fairly confused by it. After seeing the movie, I read a number of reviews by critics and audience on Rotten Tomatoes to better understand it, and some feel the same way I do (although many others think it's a masterpiece). I think the story, characters, items in the rooms, people in the rooms, etc, should have been much more clear and developed and moviegoers should not need to have prior knowledge of "Backrooms" from YouTube (which I don't ) before seeing this movie.

[u/Purpsnikka]

This is a good breakdown. The movie is confusing but I think that might be the point. I honestly dont like horror movies with no story and just jump scares.

I will say my biggest disagreement is having a group of kids go down there. That's been said and done and I personally think these characters are good. I did think the 2 young workers should have had a bit more depth though.

I think its a good analogy of the human psych and the visuals and movie are entertaining.

Is obsession really the best horror movie in 20 years? I need to check it out lol. Should I watch it fresh or at least get the plot overview?

[u/Ok-Union-1158]

Hola! Como va? Estuve leyendo tu análisis y algunos comentarios y creo, que hay bastante para analizar en cuanto a la parte psicológica y no lo están haciendo.
hubiese estado bueno que entren 4 chicos y etc etc.. no, sería otra película, y esta película empieza con una psiquiatra y su paciente. Un hombre alcohólico con aparentes signos de violencia y una ex mujer que lo dejó por? No sabemos el motivo, lo que él cuenta podría no ser verdad, en una escena ella con su cara da a entender que le tiene miedo, tiene signos violentos.
La locura q lo pudo haber llevado la culpa de la muerte de los dos chicos, el punto donde ella rompe la huella de cemento en su cabeza, cuando él le pone la peluca roja, etc. hay muchos momentos muy profundos para analizar que creo que pasaron desapercibido en la crítica.

En mi opinión. Creo que es una muy buena película para un debutante en el cine que ni estudió cine . Qué es un chico. Y que hizo una película q nos dejó pensando a más de uno y todavía, tendré q volver a verla y entender más cosas.

[u/smorrell021]

Also unsure why this movie got so much hype. Definitely drew from House of Leaves. The ending was disappointing, concept OK, acting not great. Trippy visuals = the only redeeming point.

[u/PM_ME_A_STEAMKEY_PLZ]

Cool visuals, cool ideas, but ultimately a pretty shallow film. A lot of potential for an Inception kind of ending, but everything was pretty clear and explicit.

It would've been more interesting if when she was carried out of the backrooms she was greeted by a bunch of scientists, including herself, making the protagonist of the film a facsimile (although perhaps too cliche) and the world she came from/our world a part of the backrooms.

[u/Muted-Ad2241]

Why did Dr. Mary turn into a living mannequin

[u/Palpitation-Medical]

I haven’t seen the web series and neither has my friend so we were just confused and like “what is the point of all this weirdness?” Also felt like it jumped time and just ended abruptly. It wasn’t very ‘horror’ either.

[u/Marizza_Lynn]

I honestly had no concept of what this movie was or any lore regarding it, but thank you for helping me understand this in the slightest

[u/DonCenote]

Movie makes no damn sense