I have an annual tradition of watching the best horror movies, and given that Backrooms was so buzzed about earlier this year, I streamed it with my HBO Max subscription. I'd heard some people who saw it found it boring, and while I disagree on that front, I do think it isn't really scary.
The concept of "the backrooms" has existed on the internet for a long time, and I've seen it portrayed across many short films, video games, and horror stories. I wouldn't say I went into this movie with high expectations, but I certainly went in feeling like I'd leave feeling more scared than I was.
Backrooms Is Thrilling And Weird, But I Wouldn't Say It's Scary
The problem, I think, is that I went into Backrooms expecting it to be a horror movie. As mentioned, people generally tackle this premise with a horror bent, typically with weird, deformed monsters and jump scares. This movie has zero jump scares, which bucks the trend of many modern horror movies, but I think it did it no favors.
All this to say, Backrooms is a fascinating thriller, and I really enjoyed the movie. Once I set aside the fact that I expected it to frighten me, I genuinely enjoyed the film and look forward to any future installments. In that way, it reminds me of The Silence Of The Lambs, which is another movie I'd associate with Halloween that isn't really that scary.
Could A Sequel Be Much Scarier?
A sequel to Backrooms could, and certainly should, be much scarier. Now that the mainstream gets the general idea of how it all works, this is the time for director Kane Parsons to really flesh out how horrifying that concept is and what oddities can come from this space.
As I mentioned before, we've already seen a lot of other works do this. A lot of what Parsons would need to add to a sequel is sitting there on the internet, and he has the power to make the mythology around it even scarier. It's what made it disappointing that the movie itself was more about being surreal rather than scary.
Without jump scares, Backrooms had me wondering how many people younger than me are genuinely terrified of a generic office layout from the 1990s. Or furniture that's clipped into walls and doors? We saw that all the time in video games growing up! That's not scary to me, that's bad graphics!
The good news is the movie did well and crushed it on streaming, so I think we're going to see the concept further evolve in the coming years. I'm fully on board with showing up for a sequel, but if this next one isn't scary, I don't think I'll stick around for the ride.
