#52: BACKROOMS

STARRING: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Fin Bennett and Lukita Maxwell. Written by Will Soodik. Music by Edo Van Breemen and Kane Parsons. Directed by Kane Parsons. Budget $10 million. Running time 110 minutes.

Kane Parsons was only 19 when he directed this feature film of his YouTube series Backrooms. I've never seen those so I don't know how much like this film they are. That said, if they're anything like this film, I'm going to watch them all. 

Hands down one of the best films of the year so far. Deeply unsettling, deeply deeply unsettling. It's like sliding a needle under the skin in the top of your hand and gradually loosening the skin, this gnaws at you and grates, it uncomfortable and deeply chilling, the music niggles, the look and the feel scratch at your psyche and the overall feel is that of a 1970s horror film directed by David Cronenberg, or Romero. It has that visual feel. It feels small, personal and everso slightly amateurish, but that's not meant as an insult. God, no, far from it. it's a compliment. 

The story sees wannabe failed architect and newly divorced furniture shop owner, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) seeking help from therapist Dr. Mary Kine (Renate reinsve) for his depression, while said therapist struggles with her traumatic childhood as the daughter of a mentally disturbed agoraphobic mother. With his furniture shop failing and at his wits end, Clark makes an unusual discovery in the basement of his shop of a portal to secret mysterious underground complex of rooms, corridors and doors he calls 'the Backrooms', which are populated by hideously deformed beings and unsettling vistas of half buried furniture or bad 5th generation copies of people and objects. Meanwhile a private corporate is attempting to map the changing geography of the said underground complex but keep losing operatives to something that haunts the endless rooms and corridors. 

Nothing can quite prepare you for this bizarre and fantastically creepy film and I wouldn't dare try to explain more than what I have, it's far better you go in blind to see this. You'll thank me after. There are things you'll see in this that will stay with you and haunt your dreams. The film a mixture of found footage interspersed and standard film as both Clark and Mary share the lead focus, first we follow Clark and he makes his startling discovery and begins to explore with two young members of his staff, and then picks up with Mary when Clark suddenly vanishes one day after he tells her of his discovery and she goes to explore the shop.

The visual style of a look of this film is superb and really feels like those for-mentioned 1970s horror maestros, which coupled with the ever presence sound of faint machinery or whispered voices or uncomfortable music all combine to make this a fantastically compelling and scary horror film that relies on a overwhelming building of dread over gore or jump cuts. I found myself sitting with a fixed grin desperately trying to work out what the heck was going on. 

In the end, the film just about nails its landing, but leaves you, as you'd expect from a film like this, with more questions than answers, but that's not a bad thing in this case. This like Exit 8 another film about underground spaces, is all about the journey. I doubt that as good as Kane Parsons is that he has any idea at to what is behind all the weirdness in Backrooms that would satisfy us all, but regardless what he shows us is more than enough. You'll leave hoping for a sequel but you know if they do they'll end up creating an unwieldy backstory or pouring on too much lore, or fluffing the landing like Lost. As it is this ends with a final shot that is both compelling and very creepy. 

See it on the big screen, if you dare.

9/10