Review: Backrooms

Kane Parsons' low budget movie raking it in at the box office

‘Backrooms’ is like an arthouse movie that wandered into a multiplex…which, it should be said, is no bad thing, especially in this era of superhero landfill and endlessly recurring franchises.

Based on first-time director Kane Parsons’ YouTube videos - themselves inspired by images posted on 4Chan - the film explores the concept of liminal spaces (ie eery abandoned buildings) though the troubled mind of furniture store owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his equally disturbed therapist Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve). Both principals, it should be noted, are excellent; likewise Lukita Maxwell as shop assistant Kat and Finn Bennett as her boyfriend Bobby.

When Clark discovers a secret passageway into a mysterious office building next door to his struggling outlet, he can’t be sure if he’s losing his mind or discovering a dark secret. Or - dun dun dun - possibly both.

Much has been made of the fact that Parsons, a digital native, has been able to translate his online experimentation into a box office hit, and the figures are certainly impressive; ‘Backrooms’ has already taken more than $300 million globally and is that rare phenomenon of a movie release that earned more in weeks two and three than on its opening weekend. That’s because good old-fashioned word of mouth is enticing punters, rather than the usual bludgeoning marketing campaign.

There’s something traditional about the film-making, too, with its auteur-ish nods to Poalanski’s ‘Repulsion’, ‘The Blair Witch Project’, and even ‘Eraserhead’. Truth is that if Backrooms - with its leisurely pacing, off-kilter angles, sometimes stilted conversation and odd atmosphere - had been released in the 80s, it would now be hailed as a cult classic. It’s great to see it making the big time.