Movies: Backrooms

[Randy Butternubs]

Just got back from seeing it. Probably an 8/10 from me.

Hopefully others here have seen it, I'd like to offer my theories. Will put in spoilers.

 

[The Marquis]

Dug it. Good stuff. 8/10 from me as well.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

It was OK. Great job on the setting and the immersive feeling. But man, they needed to add some action. Parts dragged, and overall, it was mostly boring. 5/10

 

[icesiren]

Horror is really having a resurgence rn, so good to see.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Incredibly impressive for a 19-20 year old director. Great film based on a really fun back-story. Great to see the horror genre having such a renaissance with the younger debut directors smashing it.

 

[Chaels Arms]

I ending up reading a lot about this movie and Parsons' background out of nowhere. I really went down the rabbit hole. I watched all his "movies" on YouTube, to the extent you can call them that. Thankfully all the short clips have been gathered together into consecutive long videos now so you can watch the Backrooms videos and The Oldest View videos as if they were movies now.

I then went to see this movie in theaters last night. I thought it was fantastic. It's very much going to depend on your taste. Eerie, weird atmospheres are right up my alley but I could absolutely see many people finding it boring. The fact I had been deep diving on the lore and the YouTube content definitely made it much more enjoyable because I had a better understanding of Async than was provided in the movie.

I will say though that of the three "movies" (YouTube Backrooms, The Oldest View, and the Backrooms Film) I actually find The Oldest View to be the best pure "horror" experience. It's only about 45 minutes long and I won't ruin it for anyone but there's a two minute span in there where I was kind of losing my mind. Just a fantastic example of efficient world building and high tension.

 

[Takeahnase]

I ending up reading a lot about this movie and Parsons' background out of nowhere. I really went down the rabbit hole. I watched all his "movies" on YouTube, to the extent you can call them that. Thankfully all the short clips have been gathered together into consecutive long videos now so you can watch the Backrooms videos and The Oldest View videos as if they were movies now.

I then went to see this movie in theaters last night. I thought it was fantastic. It's very much going to depend on your taste. Eerie, weird atmospheres are right up my alley but I could absolutely see many people finding it boring. The fact I had been deep diving on the lore and the YouTube content definitely made it much more enjoyable because I had a better understanding of Async than was provided in the movie.

I will say though that of the three "movies" (YouTube Backrooms, The Oldest View, and the Backrooms Film) I actually find The Oldest View to be the best pure "horror" experience. It's only about 45 minutes long and I won't ruin it for anyone but there's a two minute span in there where I was kind of losing my mind. Just a fantastic example of efficient world building and high tension.

I saw it last night as well at the last showing in a completely empty theater. I really liked it and thought it was creepy and bizarre in an interesting way. I’ll have to watch what you mentioned.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Ah, I forgot to write my thoughts from then which have now escaped me. And I didn't know that his YouTube videos were considered canon so I'm sure a lot of the below is wrong:

Spoiler

Async was experimenting on changing or upgrading their MRI machines. Which went horribly wrong and created the "backrooms". Apparently this also caused a disaster of some sorts, I believe an earthquake?

The people who do get this improved MRI are then somewhat replicated into the backrooms. They can also be replicated by walking into it in an unprotected suit.

This new MRI/the backrooms is still learning which is why the replications are off.

MRIs are done through layers which is also shown happening in the backrooms.

All of this is possible because their equivalent of "real" life is actually just a big computer simulation. And the MRI enhancements have messed with it.

 

[Chaels Arms]

Ah, I forgot to write my thoughts from then which have now escaped me. And I didn't know that his YouTube videos were considered canon so I'm sure a lot of the below is wrong:

Spoiler

Async was experimenting on changing or upgrading their MRI machines. Which went horribly wrong and created the "backrooms". Apparently this also caused a disaster of some sorts, I believe an earthquake?

The people who do get this improved MRI are then somewhat replicated into the backrooms. They can also be replicated by walking into it in an unprotected suit.

This new MRI/the backrooms is still learning which is why the replications are off.

MRIs are done through layers which is also shown happening in the backrooms.

All of this is possible because their equivalent of "real" life is actually just a big computer simulation. And the MRI enhancements have messed with it.

Spoiler

Yeah, the YouTube series explains Async's background, motivations, how they got started messing around in the Backrooms and what their ultimate goals are. I won't spoil any of that stuff because it's definitely worth watching but the movie ending in terms of Async's appearance was not at all surprising. The Backrooms YouTube series is long though, around three hours in total.

While the YouTube series explains a lot about Async there's also a lot of things in the movie that were nowhere to be found in the YouTube series and vice versa. It'll be interesting to see how Parsons goes about reconciling some of the differences. None of them are gamebreaking but the movie introduces some pretty major new elements while leaving out some things from the series.

I saw it last night as well at the last showing in a completely empty theater. I really liked it and thought it was creepy and bizarre in an interesting way. I’ll have to watch what you mentioned.

If you're looking for more lore and context for the Backrooms film the YouTube series is definitely worth watching. But as a self-contained horror-esque experience The Oldest View is fantastic. Just a tight, simple awesome flick without the sprawl of the Backrooms material. I think it's pretty easily Parsons' best work.

 

[Jussi]

I'll wait for the porn parody "Backdoors".

 

[The Waffler]

Saw it a few weeks ago. Had a couple beers and a couple margs before going in. Fell asleep.