Backrooms

[Matt2112]

This and Obsession (reviewed elsewhere in this sub-forum) have created an almost 'Barbenheimer' buzz amongst horror fans, having been released around the same time and concurrently available in many cinemas.

Like Obsession, Backrooms has strong psychological horror elements and comes from a young director (Kane Parsons) whose shorts gained a substantial YouTube following, inevitably resulting in a commercially released feature - which has gone on to make staggering box office receipts compared to its minimal budget.

Where Obsession is an engrossing careful-what-you-wish-for horror yarn, Backrooms is more an attempt to get under your skin and into your head; and initially it achieves a degree of success, with its pretty remarkable production design, cinematography and lighting creating the seemingly endless titular rooms, with their extraordinary use of negative space and disconcerting angles.

I'd read there were Lynchian influences at work here, and there are indirect shades of them; but really they're much more Kubrickian, and not only does the narrative arc of the two main characters (very well performed by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve) closely match those in The Shining, and of course the backrooms feel like they could be in the same universe as the Overlook Hotel, it even lifts a scene for an almost shot-for-shot reconstruction.

It doesn't quite hold together in the final third, with the oppressive creepiness of the rooms having their spell slightly broken by more familiar horror tropes, but this is an impressive debut from a young talent who potentially could develop into a master of his craft.

Rating: ***