I really liked this. I think most fans of liminal/analog horror would. Getting to see some of this kind of stuff on the big screen was really cool.
The unseen was for sure scarier than the seen. The lady creature was by the far the scariest though, compared to the silly pirate
I thought the pirate made sense for what a lot of the story was telling us about the nature of the backrooms. I think keeping it from being shown until they did, and even then keeping it at bay camera wise was the right move.
Just got home from my screening of Backrooms and at 3:20pm in the afternoon.. the screening was fucking packed out, like Avengers levels of packed out!! But I really enjoyed the film and the performances were excellent and Kane Parsons has a big future ahead of him as a director!
Hell yeah seeing this and Obsession tomorrow night for a double feat. Both theaters are packed out, love to see it. Hopefully the crowds aren’t annoying lol
Saw it in 4DX, which was mostly a fan blowing on you when they ran and the chair rumbling with the footsteps. Way more restrained than, say, Mortal Kombat, where I felt like I was dying.
They also showed the trailer for the new Adam Wingard A24 movie about the mutant super soldier that goes on a killing spree. Looks so wonderfully sleazy.
Credit to the use of "confounding" for this movie on the last page; it's a good word to describe it. I'll use another word: uneven, which feels like a really harsh way to describe something I respect and liked a good deal, but it's very much how this final product comes across. The first hour or so of this is just about perfect. I could have spent the entire runtime slinking around the backrooms with these characters, and all these stellar, surreal set pieces deliver some genuinely high highs. The Christmas tree room in particular had me holding my breath, just a truly sublime marriage of sight and sound and some of the best "found footage" styled scenes I've ever seen. I do think its stumbles in the final quarter are reflective of its other deficiencies, namely in the script and being unable to decide if it wants to let your imagination fill in the blanks of the meaning behind what the backrooms are, or if it's something that can be explained and rationalized. Luckily for this movie, Ejiofor and Reinsve are just so incredible at their craft that they could elevate any lines and story beats they are given, even if that path they need to walk down is the woefully overdone "TRAUMA IS THE VILLAIN" trope. All in all, an undoubtedly unique experience that's worth getting lost in. I just wish it went even harder on the things it did so well.
I saw it last night with a packed crowd and surprisingly you could hear a pin drop for the most part. I couldn’t see them but every so often someone would burp or make a noise when it was real quiet and then their group would laugh. After like the 3rd time i just said “yo, shut up” out loud and then they never did it again. I have a 19 month old at home so I rarely go to the movies. I do not have patience for people being disruptive at the theater anymore.
Our local indie theater tonight. I don’t think they’ve had multiple sellouts since maybe Longlegs or Barbenheimer. edit: Image is blurry, but it’s Obsession and Backrooms.
Didn’t enjoy this. I know nothing of the source material or creepy pasta but I almost fell asleep a couple times towards the end
Hell yeah that one looks cool. I also had to turn away during the new evil dead rise trailer. Don’t wanna see it!
I also loved this. Pretty shocked. Went in figuring I would enjoy it for the atmosphere, but also felt guarded because of the Redditness of it all (I've only seen the original short) and it really, really exceeded my expectations. Like a mix of Blair Witch Project, Annihilation, and Being John Malkovich. Complaints seem to be that the plot was thin but I thought it all came together really nicely - I enjoyed it just about as much as Obsession tbh. Our theater was full of (mostly) children and I cannot imagine what they thought of it compared to, like Five Nights at Freddy's lmao. Great, well-behaved crowd though. Also, Skinamarink gives you...a lot more than nothing if you really think of the ramifications of it all. Great, terrifying film.
I think you can poke holes in this, but really it’s just a masterful command of tone and restraint for a 21-year-old. Sound design, set, and performances go nuts. Clever camera tricks. And I’m especially glad the story is open to interpretation. This is his DEBUT film—the dude is just proving he’s got the stuff.
Caretaker needle-drop was right at home. Makes perfect sense that it would be an inspiration for this considering how the Backrooms (in this) pretty much mirror the concept of Everywhere at the End of Time.
I loved this. It gave me everything I wanted and more. Everything I Wanted: - Weird ass rooms with jacked up architectural choices - Non-yellow rooms - No stupid ass demon monster - No killer zombie Resident Evil ass motherfuckers* - Mixture of VHS cam POV and hi-def and both being cool to experience - No complicated story that kills the vibes - No explaining away everything - No stuff that can only be enjoyed if you’ve seen all the original shorts And More: - That glorious Christmas light room chase scene. Mama Mia that may be the most fun experience I’ve had in a horror movie in the theater. I was fully in there for that one. - *Those zombie people got to do their jump scare then they were chill and not the “main monsters” - Goofy ass but creepy monster that tied more into the psychological themes than the horror stuff - Opaque ending that was still basic enough to get the general “no matter where you go, there you are back in the same room” theme - Conspiracy/corporation stuff with Mr. Indie Man that was not fully explained away I see why this might feel slight but I am so happy with this restrained version of this movie that left me wanting more. I’ve seen too many interesting ideas where they over explained and over show everything or the last monster chase abandons all the vibes and creativity of the movie and is just action. This one ended and I felt like I was ready to learn more about how MRI technology uncovers backrooms and why so much of what the company saw (or at least what we saw them see) was Clark-based rememberings and rooms. Give me a weird sequel that doesn’t really explain that much more but shows more kinds of rooms and more fucked up humans.