Ty Watches "Backrooms"

I was able to go see "Backrooms" on Monday, and I have some thoughts about it.

I have wanted to see this movie since I first heard about it a few months back. I saw a trailer before some other A24 movie I went to see and it intrigued me. Then I heard some more things about it that stoked the fires even more for me.

I heard that it was directed by a 20 year old that was found on YouTube. I saw that they had cast Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve in the lead roles. I am a fan of A24 and will watch most of their stuff. And I heard it was creepy, but in more of a psychological way. Those are the kind of "horror" movies I tend to enjoy. I don't like gore porn or jump scare movies. I am also not the biggest fan of traditional horror movies. There's just something that fascinates me when it comes to psychological horror/drama movies. The underlying creepiness compels me. It is why I am able to watch stuff like "Hereditary" or "Bring Her Back". Sure, these movies are very creepy, and can be haunting, but they are more of a mind f than anything else, and I prefer those types of "horror" movies. "Backrooms" definitely falls into that territory for me as a movie goer. Don't get it twisted though, this movie is scary. But it is more in the details and the threat of what could happen in this scenario.

I have later learned that this movie is based on a YouTube series that I have yet to see. I plan on watching the series now that I've seen the movie, but that is for another day. I was happy to know only the very little that I told you all up top going into this movie. You should go in as blind as possible if you have not seen this movie yet, and my review will be spoiler free by the way. That's the ideal way to experience this movie in my opinion.

"Backrooms" was a fascinating watch for me. I was on edge the entire time, but in the best possible way. Watching it all unfold was at times scary, frustrating, compelling and overall exciting. I sat on my Letterboxd review for a while because I couldn't figure out how many stars to give it. In the end I settled on three and a half. That felt proper to me. There are moments, the movie is about an hour and 50 minutes long, that I thought could have been cut. I understand why these certain scenes were left in the movie, but I also think we would have been fine if they were a little shorter, or gone from the final cut completely. I don't know if we need all the flashbacks with Reinsve's character. And maybe they only needed one scene in the therapist's office. But that may just be me. But the rest of the movie was compelling. And scary. The opening sequence itself, which was tremendous table setting, had me on edge. It was spooky and left me wanting to see what was going to happen next. The use of sound was exceptional. It was loud and soft at the appropriate times. When I needed to be spooked by something, the music cues helped me out. I thought they did a wonderful job in that area. Ejiofor and Reinsve were up to the task. When they had to monologue, they crushed it. When they had to step back for the others to shine, they did well in that regard too. Those two are solid, seasoned actors, and they showed that tenfold in these roles. And Kane Parsons seemed to have a deft hand as a director. He may be young, but this kid has an up and coming career. My son asked if the direction was good, and I told him it felt like a real movie directed by a real director. There was nothing that stood out as bad or over the top. This kid knows what he is doing behind the camera and it showed on screen.

I recommend this movie to fans of the genre. If you want to be creeped out, but also have a mind f, go see "Backrooms". I'm very curious to see what Kane Parsons does next. But for now, he came out of the gate swinging and I thought he had a pretty solid first attempt. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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