I loved this. They really hammer home the trauma angle at the end, which I didn’t love. I also agree the creatures were scarier when we only saw glimpses. But the set pieces, the music, was super impressive especially for a 20 year old (seriously what the fuck) in their debut.
The monster looked so sad/terrified trying to get to Mary at the end, really liked that choice. Overall really enjoyed this, pretty early but I would be surprised if this doesn’t get a “production design” award or something, sets were spectacular. Was an absolute feast for the eyes seeing those. And the score was spectacular. Can’t believe Kane did that as well.
I love that I’m able to walk around my house at night, completely unafraid, after watching this. Best horror move ever.
Damn. I forgot I have blank walls and a circuit breaker and that I could therefore be theoretically Saturn Devouring His Son’d by a giant disfigured copy of me dressed like an improviser. Fear 100% unlocked.
The scene in the basement and the Christmas tree room was probably the most tense I’ve ever been seeing a film, haha
Good movie. Feel like they nailed the tone. Probably will never watch again but was a good theater experience for sure.
I like the idea and the imprint this movie already has or represents more than I actually like the movie. There are aspects of this that are very much obviously made by a 20 year old. The trauma angle in particular is just a little surface level, and some of the dialogue is clearly written by someone who's never lived the sort of things these characters have gone through. But, all technical aspects point to Kane being a real talent and someone to watch as he grows into creating more. Excited for the future, decent first effort...let's see what else he's got.
Not to correct anyone, but also good to keep in mind that Parsons didn’t write this, it looks like it went through the hands of one screenwriter and someone named Will Soodik got final credit, but who knows what age he is. But also, if you listen to any Kane Parsons interviews he sounds and feels like he has the wisdom of a 40something.
He was also “mentored” by Osgood Perkins on set. I think the movie was likely a lot more collaborative than some people think. I’m curious what his next movie is and what it will look like if he moves outside the creative support system A24 gave him for this.
I was pleasantly surprised by this. I wasn't that familiar with the backrooms aside from knowing of the general concept and seeing some of the images before so I was curious how they were going to stretch it out into a full length film. I think they did a really great job bringing it to life visually and creating some nice tense, claustrophobic sequences. I think melding the concept with the idea of degrading memories and repeating patterns of the brain was very effective too, I'm not sure if that's already part of the lore or if it was something they added specifically for this but it was an extra layer of depth that really worked for me.
Duplass posted a little video to address the comments that it was “ghost directed” by his mentors or whatever and said, in so many words, that this was all Kane. That he had command of the set.
Every first time director is supported by experienced people on set. That shouldn’t be a knock on Kane that he had great, experienced people helping him direct his first movie. Even experienced directors utilize the expertise of hundreds of people to make a movie. I get why Duplass is defending Kane from people who want to take away his accomplishment by saying it was “ghost directed.” He seems like a decent guy. I think acknowledging that this was a movie written and made by a team of experienced adults actually defends Kane as well from people who want to diminish aspects of the movie by looking at it from a “he’s 20 and thinks this is deep” meta lens.
I have a friend that worked on the set of this and they told me the director would cuss up a storm after every take lol
In the interview, he kept on saying how he wants to do a Backrooms TV series, which I assume every streaming service would back the Brinks truck up for.
This movie has sent me down a very random rabbit hole. I run a hyperlocal meme page for Long Beach, New York and I asked "what's the backrooms of Long Beach?" after seeing this movie as a joke. Someone pointed me to a decomposing oceanfront building and it ends up the building is owned by Air China, which is owned by the Chinese government. The lobby is full of flies, alive and dead, and everything is still there from ~20 years ago. Anyway, I'm just assuming someone is decomposing in there with all the flies.
I binged all 22 of the Youtube shorts yesterday after having not seen any of them and saw the movie today and I am all in on watching this kid's career now, his flair for visuals and atmosphere are fucking top notch. I know he didn't originate the original image that the series ended up being based on but I still feel like I have never really seen anything like this aesthetic before, and I fully credit him with that. The movie felt like a fully realized version of that, although I will say the story started losing me a little bit starting with the dinner scene... it felt a little on the nose, and Clark being "friends" with the creatures didn't really work for me. I do think the ending will probably grow on me when I keep thinking about it though If you guys agree with me that the best parts of the movie were the found footage scenes, you should definitely go through Kane's entire Youtube playlist of his web series, or at least the following three (but they're all worth watching, the whole series is just short of 3 hours together):
the original Backrooms short is still so fucking good. arguably scarier than anything in the movie, just 8 minutes of pure dread