Rating: 7/10
I want to start this review off by admitting I knew absolutely nothing about the liminal space aesthetic online, or that people even found liminal spaces creepy, I never frequented “4chan,” and I barely even know what a creepypasta is, so it should come as no surprise that I was not aware of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms web series prior to the release of his feature film of the same name, but of course I made sure to delve into the origins of Backrooms to help myself prepare for my viewing of the feature film, and I must say, I do find it fascinating. Fascinating because we’re reaching a revolutionary moment in cinema where young online content creators are being taken more seriously by Hollywood and are given the opportunity to fully realize their vision, and considering how Backrooms and Curry Barker’s Obsession are both killing it in the box office, and given that these films are actually good, it’s safe to say the kids are alright. Taking the surreal and eerie aesthetics of the web series and amplifying them for the feature film, Kane Parsons and co. translate the series quite well to the big screen. The set design is beautifully unsettling with it’s piss-colored yellow, the “found footage” scenes are perfectly executed and suspenseful, which helps revitalize a genre that has become stale, and the surrealistic nature of the film brings to mind David Lynch, and with the help of screenwriter Will Soodik, characters with traumatic backstories are incorporated into this world, but therein lies the problem. The characters we’re supposed to care about are frustratingly underdeveloped. It’s like the film is a battle between Backrooms’ signature eerie aesthetic and the character driven screenplay, and the former wins. This unfortunately makes the characters unimportant or hard to sympathize with. At the beginning we get a glimpse into our protagonist Clark’s mind as he attempts to cope with his alcoholism and failed marriage, and his therapist Mary Kline is also working through trauma related to the demolition of her childhood home and her mother’s institutionalization. We’re led to believe these characters will have a fleshed-out arc, but unfortunately there’s no payoff as the film spends more time focusing on aesthetics and long drawn out scenes to immerse you into the world of the Backrooms, and not enough time investing us into the characters emotionally, so any kind of tension or suspense that’s supposed to be there when these characters interact is non-existent. Which leaves this film a great looking surrealistic nightmare devoid of emotional weight. However, there’s enough disturbing and deeply unsettling visuals and horrifying moments to prevent this film from falling flat, and had they just focused on “Async’s” research on the Backrooms instead of a shoehorned plot of a man who discovers the Backrooms inside his furniture store, this film would’ve been a lot better. They should’ve stripped the film of its traditional narratives and turned it into a series of avant-garde atmospherics à la Skinamarink, but hey, this film was a fun watch nonetheless. Though this film is far from perfect, Kane Parsons has my attention, and I’m excited to see what he does next.
Written By: Steven Sandoval
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