Spoiler alert: This article contains major spoilers and details for ‘Backrooms’. Reader discretion is advised if you haven’t seen it yet.With its concept of abandoned corridors and unsettling liminal spaces, ‘Backrooms’ is the latest horror craze to grab audiences’ attention. The film is part of a web culture that begins as a meme on the online forum 4Chan, and quickly becomes a hit YouTube series with over 200 million hits. Kane Parsonscreator behind the beloved online content, makes his directorial debut with this feature adaptation, bringing the disturbing concept of mono yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lighting to the big screen. The film explores original internet concepts that are becoming the next frontier for Hollywood studios looking to connect with young audiences.According to the BBC, the concept of ‘Backrooms’ was created in 2019 when anonymous 4chan users were asked to post “disturbing images that feel off”. One user posts an image of an abandoned office space and writes: “If you’re not careful and you’re out of touch with reality. [gaming terminology for glitching or disappearing] in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Back Rooms, where the stench of old damp carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum, and approximately six hundred million square kilometers of roughly randomly segmented empty rooms.
Kane Parsons becomes Hollywood’s youngest director with ‘Backrooms’ adaptation
Kane Parsons, now 20 years old, becomes the youngest director signed up for the film adaptation. His task in 2023 is clear: drag this isolating hellscape to the big screen kicking and screaming, and in a way that resembles his YouTube series.Parsons reveals that what excites him most about the project is using a Hollywood budget to go deeper and bring “real physicality” to ensure the film “separates itself from the YouTube series”. The team behind the film achieves this by building a sprawling 30,000-square-foot set based on its Blender designs, with its first YouTube video—similar to “Found Footage”—which has 80 million views and features a stunning yellow office block with shaky 90s camcorder footage.“I think it allows us to buy into the characters to a greater extent,” Parsons explains of the production’s approach.
‘Backrooms’ explores mental health through the concept of liminal space
Written by Will Soodi, the film uses the concept of ‘Backrooms’ to explore mental health issues. Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Clark, a frustrated furniture store salesman struggling after the breakup of his marriage. As tensions rise between Mary, played by Renate Reinsve, and her therapist, Clark discovers a path to the store’s Back Rooms, a space that begins to capture the couple’s unresolved traumas.
Generation Z connects with ‘Backrooms’ through fears of liminal space
The big screen of ‘Backrooms’ reflects the rise of fear online: the idea of a liminal or transitional space. ‘Backrooms’ has a forum on Reddit with over 350,000 subscribers. Forum moderators said there was something “deeply existential” about the concept and less about the monsters and “more about the uncertainty of what might be in the space with you.”TikTok is full of ‘Backrooms’ themed clips that have racked up 30 billion views, highlighting the popularity of this ’90s scene with Gen Z. According to internet researcher Gunseli Yalcinkaya, the sad nostalgia of pre-internet memories and spaces and the isolation of the Covid pandemic may explain why young people are attracted to ideas like ‘Backrooms’.As Yalcinkaya points out, it captures the frustration of what it means to be young today, “where reality is constantly being mediated through screens; there is already a sense that reality is failing, that nothing is real anymore.”
‘Backrooms’ becomes the first internet-to-film hit
The online trailer for ‘Backrooms’ quickly became one of the most watched movies, with 31 million views. The outlook for “Backrooms” looks “really promising,” as it is expected to easily surpass its $10 million budget.Matthew Frank, author of The Ankler’s Crowd Pleaser newsletter, says the YouTube-to-big-screen pipeline “feels like a sea change.” Hollywood executives look to native Internet culture for audiences and filmmakers like Parsons. It helps studios to come up with these names with “pre-established audiences” in an age where cinema is battling streaming.
Kane Parsons reflects on being Hollywood’s youngest director
As for Parsons, the media headlines speak volumes for how young he is to direct a Hollywood film, a focus he tires of. He worries that his inexperience might affect perception, but it “never came up” on set. “Almost immediately, it was just us, in a vacuum, talking about the project… I like to think that I completed it by being completely obsessive about any lack of experience,” he says.“Backrooms” finds much to explore in this concept, proving that original Internet IP has a tremendous appeal to audiences that diverge from the usual Hollywood fare.
