re: Backrooms

10,000 F bombs in a movie targeted to kids.

Disappointed.

I watched The Backrooms last night and liked it a lot. Although I admit that it wasn't overly good or anything.

But I absolutely love the youtube series KP did, and it translated much better into a real movie than I thought it might (that was one of my main concerns with it when I first heard about it).

I agree with some of the gripes about it in this thread and the other one. But I was able to set those aside and enjoy it. I think I just mainly am so intrigued and entertained by the whole liminal space angle, and enjoy watching those ideas take place.

The psychiatrist's backstory was almost completely useless and unnecessary. And Clark's jump from a "normal dude with resentment/anger issues toward his ex-wife to a complete psycho living in the Backrooms and literally eating people" is my biggest complaint. He just sends Mary a letter saying he's going in there, and then a few minutes later he's batshit insane and kidnapping her for....reasons?

The giant pirate thing was also on the silly side, but I at least get what they were going for (and the explanation on the previous page make sense and sort of agree with my thoughts on it).

I did really like the take on the Backrooms about how they are essentially recreations of memories that are not quite right and slightly off (or in some cases, REALLY off). That was cool.

I do wish we would've gotten just a tad more insight on what it is and what Phil's company was on about. Were they alluding to them creating MRI machines being what caused the Backrooms, or what triggered the first doorway to them to be opened? I didn't fully understand the explanation of that.

Also, I didn't need the Backrooms themselves explained to me since I had read up about them and watched KP's videos about them beforehand. But I can see why someone going into this movie completely blind would've led to them not really liking it or caring for the story. Without context, I suspect the Backrooms would just be weird for weird's sake because they aren't really explained at all. So I do think that backstory is more necessary for enjoyment of the movie than not.

But all in all, I did like it a good bit despite its obvious flaws. And I'd be interested to see more Backrooms stuff moving forward (i.e. another movie, a show, etc.) A TV show or limited series with a fully fleshed out Backrooms story would be pretty cool...basically movie-level quality upgrades to the original YT series or something like that. But there are almost endless stories you could tell with lore like this. And if it was all tied together with a huge, overarching plot (i.e. explanation) of what they are or something like that, it would be pretty cool IMO.

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OK, can you explain the Backrooms? I really don't get it.

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Not what they are themselves, but just the lore behind it. The whole idea is that they exist in some random plane of existence/dimension or whatever. And there are various access points that people discover (usually accidentally), and they fall through a hole or a wall and find themselves in there. And it's just an endless, impossible, liminal space void, where sometimes various entities (monsters, essentially) roam.

That's basically it. There isn't a "hey, there is what this place is...we've figured it out" explanation. I just mean if you watched Kane Pixel's youtube series of Backrooms videos, you didn't need an explanation of what they are in the movie itself because you'd already be familiar with them (and their weirdness).

watched it this past weekend and more or less enjoyed it. like others have said here, the plot was pretty much nonexistent. but i really liked the overall vibe and atmosphere of the whole thing. i liked how creepy and nonsensical the backrooms themselves were, yet somehow every room seemed somehow like a room i had been in before as a kid or something. they really captured that vibe of the back of an old Sears or some random 90s era office space somewhere.

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Yep. It felt very familiar but slightly off, and that seemed to be the point. I loved the look and feel, which is why the first half was so much fun. The mystery was more fun than the explanation to me.

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Have you watched the series on youtube? If not, check it out...it's really well done IMO. It's found footage though (not sure if that bothers you or not), as opposed to a movie-like setting like the film is.

But it's really good, and pretty amazing that it was basically created by a teenager in his room with some (fairly basic) software.

Here is a link to his channel, and you can click the Backrooms playlist: Kane Pixels

You can watch them in order (I think there's about 2.5 hours in total).

The Oldest View videos 2 and 3 are also pretty good/creepy as well. It's about basically a full-sized mall hundreds of feet underground in a random spot in the woods. The SFX are really well done, and the creepy vibe is excellent. But all you really need to watch are #2 and #3, as the rest are just sort of filler videos.

I love found footage stuff so I will check it out. Thanks.

Watched the first two backrooms videos. Wow. I can't believe that is all CGI. Those were so much fun. I love the design of everything.

Yeah they’re really well done.

I just like the liminal space thing. That alone is creepy enough for me. But then mixing in little monsters and stuff make it even creepier. But it’s weird just how creepy it is to me for something so unendingly mundane.

And like I said, basically just a kid in his bedroom making this shite on software (I forget the name of it).

Anyone been to a MeowWolf? It's basically Backrooms in real life. Go check one or if in Vegas, Denver, Santa fe or Houston.

The one in Vegas was a trip. Cool with kids or without.

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Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it.

Needed a Pepsi machine though.

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Where is this?