BACKROOMS: 3 ½ STARS. “cerebral horror that relies on anxiety over jump scares.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Backrooms,” a new psychological thriller starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve and now playing in theatres, a man finds a portal to a strange reality.
CAST: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell. Directed by Kane Parsons.
REVIEW: The Kafka-esque story of “Backrooms” centers on wannabe architect Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a broken man with a broken marriage, reduced to sleeping in a bedroom display in his furniture store.
The action begins when a mysterious portal appears in the basement of his store. Behind the portal are a maze of dingy rooms, with all the charm of an abandoned call centre, that could easily be as big as the New York subway system. “I’ve been here every night since I found the place,” he says, “and I still barely scratch the surface.”
Intrigued, Clark disappears into the otherworldly labyrinth of identical yellow rooms prompting his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) to enter the nightmarish nest of rooms to find and rescue him.
With a dollop of David Lynch and a surreal slice of “Severance,” “Backrooms” defies easy explanation. “Nothing in recorded history means more than this,” says Phil (Mark Duplass), “but I don’t understand it.”
And neither do I.
An introspective exploration of the effects of difficulty of escaping destructive personal patterns, the film uses a hellscape of endlessly connected rooms, the likes of which would make M.C. Escher’s head spin, that appear to be manifestations of “everyplace that ever was.” Each interconnected space represents Clark and Mary’s fears, and the unbroken loop of dysfunction and victimhood which define their lives.
At least that’s what I think it’s about. You may disagree.
What we may agree on, however, is director Kane Parsons’s effective use of an anxiety inducing score and sound design to accentuate the growing sense of dread.
That feeling is enhanced by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve who anchor the story, with vulnerability and quiet intensity.
“Backrooms” is unique, introspective, psychological horror that relies on anxiety over jump scares.
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