In 1990, Clark (Chuital Eziopo), who runs a furniture store on the outskirts of Silicon Valley, experiences something shocking in his store’s basement. He passes through a wall and enters a mysterious space where yellow walls, grid ceilings, and fluorescent lights stretch on forever.
Drawn by an unknown attraction, Clark ventures deeper and deeper into the void. His therapist, Mary Klein (Lenate Rainesbe), sets out to find him after he disappears, leaving behind cryptic words. Once she enters the ‘Backrooms’, Mary wanders in search of an exit while confronting the scars of her own past.
Released on the 27th, the infinite maze in ‘Backrooms’ appears to be a visualization of the human subconscious. The surreal, twisted structures, where objects are embedded in walls and floors, can be read as the collapse of consciousness. The unpredictable plot creates high immersion and suspense, while the anxiety and fear of the massive space are maximized by intense sound design.
This is the directorial debut of 21-year-old rising star Kane Parsons, who signed with the famous US genre film studio A24. Horror master James Wan, the mind behind the ‘Saw’, ‘The Conjuring’, and ‘Insidious’ series, served as a producer.
‘Backrooms’ is the first instance of an intellectual property (IP) that grew organically on digital platforms evolving into a theatrical release from a major studio. The world of ‘Backrooms’, where unfortunate souls face an endless space mixed with elements of the outside world, began with a single photo posted on a US online community in 2019.
This photo of an empty room with yellow wallpaper expanded into an urban legend as various stories were added to it. Inspired by this, Director Parsons released a YouTube short film (fake documentary) titled ‘Backrooms’ and a subsequent web series in 2022, which garnered an explosive response.
Director Parsons explained, “When people are isolated from society, they easily become detached from their surroundings and fall into conspiratorial thinking. Imagine how terrifying it would be if you had to repeat that life every day, forever.” He added, “‘Backrooms’ is the condensed result of the fatigue we feel toward the standardized industrial society we are falling into.”
