Backrooms
Dustin Chase
Director Kane Parsons has adapted his unusual television show into a feature film. Horror films fans should beware this isn’t your typical genre film. Those beckoned to the beige light because of Oscar nominated actors Chiwetel Ejiofor (“Twelve Years a Slave”) and Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) should also adjust their expectations for this intellectual horror film. “Backrooms” is 80 percent design and 20 percent story, which in this specific case is quite an impressive breakdown. For those of us coming of age in the 80’s and 90’s, the attention to detail from the production design is as mind-bending as the science fiction concepts in the script.
Dreams of being an architect haven’t panned out for Clark (Ejiofor) who owns a sad furniture store called Ottoman Empire in the bleakest shopping mall strip in Santa Clarita. His hokey commercials of his hobbling around as a pirate have done little to increase sales. Once a week he sees a therapist to discuss his crumbling marriage and life woes. Dr Mary Kline (Reinsve) has her own cheesy television commercials selling her therapy styles on cassette tape. She offers a constructive ear to Clark, role playing for his anger and resentment. Yet ultimately feels helpless in his therapy and a fraud in her own profession. Clark discovers something in the bottom floor of his store that leads to a mysterious backroom that will change both his and Mary’s lives.
Both Ejiofor and Reinsve give compelling and grounded performances in their “Mulder & Scully” type roles.
“Imagine describing a dog to someone who has never seen a dog and have them draw it.” Sure they might get the basics and it’s likely going to be a little off. That’s the most important piece of information “Backrooms” gives the audience on how to decipher or understand what’s happening here. It’s not unlike artificial intelligence just a few years ago, that couldn’t quite correctly create a human, building or various prompts given by the user. Whether intentionally or not, “Backrooms” has quite a lot to say about how non-human entity’s learn and perceive the information we give them or they observe. Mis-remembering is another term used in the film as characters try to both understand and survive this obscure reality. Both Ejiofor and Reinsve give compelling and grounded performances in their “Mulder & Scully” type roles. In fact the whole film feels like a lost “X-Files” episode.
Parson’s design for this abstract horror film takes minimalism to a bold new level for cinema. It’s as if he took all the worst color pallets and patterns from the 90’s and put them in every corner of the movie. Younger audience might not appreciate how accurate and spot on the 90’s era designs and wardrobes are with beige colors and fat ties. A lot of the running time is about discovery: Clark walking around the back rooms he has discovered and their obtuse designs that appear never ending. “Construction workers on acid” he describes it. Tiny doors in ceilings, rooms that are anything but square, narrow crawl spaces and the imagination just runs wild. The limited amount of scares and gore might not satisfy more traditional horror seekers. However “Backrooms” visual and production design is something that will haunt your brain long after the film is over.
Final Thought
Parsons attention to design and 90’s nostalgia is as impressive and encompassing as the film’s trippy premise.