By Glenn Kay, For the Sun
Rating: 3 out of 4
Running Time: 110 minutes
This feature film from A24 is currently playing at theaters across the country.
The summer movie season may have only just begun, but we’ve already had some big surprises occur at the box office. Namely, a couple of low-budget independent horror films (that weren’t screened for the press) have connected with audiences, and are competing neck and neck with their big-budget major studio competition.
Backrooms is one of those titles. It is based on a hugely popular series of Youtube shorts that was created by a teenager. The shorts feature individuals walking through desolate, empty building hallways, only to have figures stalk them from the shadows. It is clear that this film adaptation has captured the imagination of Gen Z moviegoers. But will it work for newcomers?
Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a flailing furniture store owner. Recently divorced, angry and suffering from a drinking problem, he visits therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), who uses her patented self-help techniques to try and help him confront his personal issues. Even she has her own psychological problems, having been tormented as a child by an unstable mother who frequently kept her locked inside her home.
One night, Clark and his electrician (Philip Granger) discover extra breakers in the store’s power distribution box. Clark flips them and then finds himself walking through his store’s basement wall into a labyrinth of odd hallways with scattered pieces of furniture. It soon turns out that he is not the first to have entered this strange place, and that there may be great danger lurking within. Clark attempts to map the place out, and then convince the skeptical Kline of its existence.
Yes, a great deal of the film features Clark, Kline and a few others, including store employee Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and her boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett), exploring this odd new environment. Despite the fact that the story consists of a lot of aimless wandering around bright, office-like corridors, there is an impressive sense of mood and atmosphere that is established and maintained throughout. The passageways are familiar but appear off-kilter and unsettling, leading into surreal and more claustrophobic areas. In the process, a palpable sense of dread is created. And, at points later in the picture, the backrooms remind one of how an empty business complex might look designed by artist M.C. Escher.
Another big plus is the cast, many of whom are all exceptional performers that you wouldn’t expect to see in a genre picture. Ejiofor is compelling as Clark, dealing with rage and frustration at work, as well as a strange compulsion and subtle fascination in searching deeper into the title location. The same goes for Reinsve, who ultimately finds herself being pulled into the hidden area. They both manage to sell the idea with little background detail. Mark Duplass has a supporting role as a scientist in the picture, and he isn’t given the best exposition to deliver. Still, he sells it well enough to keep one trying to make sense out of the situation.
Indeed, anyone purchasing a ticket should know that the explanation as to what is occurring will be unsatisfying. In fact, the film feels like a general concept being fleshed out, more than it is a traditional narrative. One gets the impression that the filmmakers may have felt compelled to hint at some sort of explanation and thus, there is a lot of hand-waving late in the movie. A character admits that they don’t really have a full grasp of the situation, even throwing in babble about their work on MRIs. The more the viewer has to hear about the situation from experts, the sillier it all begins to feel. It’s easy to imagine that, with an original concept that never required a clear rationale, even the writers haven’t fully worked out what is happening. But that may be for the best, since as noted, whenever they try suspension of disbelief begins to set in.
At nearly two hours, Backrooms can’t help but feel repetitive at times. And yet, it is still strangely engaging. The picture is well-acted and incredibly atmospheric. And it’s a positive to see a young filmmaker create such a surreal vision, that has managed to draw in the general public. In the end, it’s probably best to treat this movie as a frightening hallucination. One that follows characters into a new, unexplained supernatural space that is slowly beginning to fill itself with distorted visions of personal traumas willed to life. If you can forgive the film for its unnecessary science jargon late in the story, then this creeper should make a lasting impression among anyone willing to go on a hallucinogenic nightmare trip.
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