Creatively and visually speaking, “Backrooms” has Kane Parsons’ trademark, maintaining the tense vibe that he built on his original web series. The director shot most of the movie using wide-angle lenses, capturing the eerie nature of the labyrinthine liminal spaces. The seamless mix of CGI sequences and weird physical sets is one of the strongest aspects, and the entities were creepy enough to create a good level of tension.
Misguided metaphors and underdeveloped lore
Having been there when this creepypasta first became popular on the internet, I was expecting a proper continuation of the canon universe that Parsons created. Instead, we get a therapist and one of his clients roaming around aimlessly. The screenwriters integrated Clark’s painful life experiences into the essence of the backrooms, using the infinite, looping environment as a metaphor for his personal trauma, but the final result is messy and illogical. The half-baked backstory of Mary does not enrich her character in any way and is not elaborated further, rendering several sequences pure filler.
The film provides some explanations by the end, but they are rushed, incomplete, and largely pointless. The overall watching experience was tedious and boring. While this director has already demonstrated a unique vision when it comes to visual horror, he needs to improve his writing or collaborate with someone who can properly further his work.