Backrooms' Terrifying Monster Will Give Horror Fans Nightmares
by Bill Bria · /FilmThis article contains major spoilers for "Backrooms."
Kane Parsons' "Backrooms" belongs primarily to an emerging subgenre of horror dubbed liminal horror, in which the average, mundane real world is shifted into an uncanny, subtly unrecognizable new reality. Most of the horror in these films stems from an existential dread that's not always easy to put your finger on, but if it's working on you, it's impossible not to feel it deep in your bones. "Backrooms" is a quintessential example of this, as Parsons presents the audience and the characters with familiar surroundings that gradually become more unfamiliar as they stretch on and on into infinity. The horror, then, is generally one of implication and inference: the fear of being (or becoming) lost, the fear of unfamiliar places, the fear of being isolated permanently, and so on.
However, as much as Parsons' YouTube series relies on steadily building this dread through bite-sized found-footage installments, his feature-film version required a threat that was a bit more tangible. After all, what's more terrifying than a mysterious, odd space than one which secretly harbors something deadly inside it? As such, "Backrooms" contains a terrifying monster at its core, and in classic "Jaws" and "Alien" fashion, Parsons keeps its identity hidden for much of the movie. When it finally comes time to reveal the monster, the film doesn't disappoint.
It turns out it's a giant, uncanny facsimile of Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), dressed in the pirate mascot costume for his "Ottoman Empire" furniture store. Pirate Clark's distorted features and his bizarre, half-tortured, half-angry expression are sure to give horror fans nightmares all by themselves. The reason for him being the main monster of the film and the implications of that will keep fans awake at night, too.
Pirate Clark is a reflection of Clark's darkest traits
The human Clark may be well-meaning, but he's a troubled man, and that's being charitable. He's in therapy with Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), where he vocalizes his bitterness at not being a successful architect. He blames this on his responsibilities to the store as well as his recent divorce from his ex-wife, whom he seemingly abused. When Clark films a commercial for the store in full costume, he complains that the outfit (and the effort) is demeaning and beneath him.
After he discovers the Backrooms, his obsession with it becomes increasingly selfish. He doesn't care for the safety of his young employees, and both Bobby (Finn Bennett) and Kat (Lukita Maxwell) end up dead as a result. When Mary finds Clark living in the Backrooms after he has gone missing, he reveals that the native organisms in the realm are copies of real people (or those who were). He also reveals that he's able to sustain himself by consuming their bodies, which aren't made up of human innards but some other amorphous substance.
The Backrooms, aka The Complex, is a realm which somehow manifests objects and people from the real world in a surreal, half-remembered fashion, getting details wrong almost like a bad mirror reflection. Yet it also seems to reflect and amplify details that things (especially people) keep hidden in reality. So Clark's violent tendencies, his aggression, his anger, and his selfishness are what make up and drive Pirate Clark. As a result, the real Clark is killed when Pirate Clark takes a big bite out of him; turnabout is fair play. Yet as creepy as Pirate Clark is, the implication that there could be dark mirror versions of all of us within the Backrooms is even more unsettling.
"Backrooms" is now playing in theaters everywhere.