Backrooms          2 ½ stars

I went to see the new horror film Backrooms after seeing the trailer and have to say it is one of the most unusual horror movies I remember seeing and maybe the most unsettling. It’s amazing how scenes of empty rooms or hallways with a few ordinary objects can cause terror but the maker of the movie, Kane Parsons somehow pulls it off. We meet Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)), the owner of a discount furniture store in 1990 who has a temper and is going through a difficult time after his wife has kicked him out of the house. He has sessions with his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value, The Worst Person in the World)), who is trying to help him through his anger issues. Clark has been having electrical problems with the lights in the store turning on and off. An electrician has found some mysterious switches in the store’s lower level that should not be there. One night while sleeping in the store Clark discovers a hidden doorway below ground level and falls through it. There he finds a lit-up room that contains a pile of various furniture that looks very haphazardly arranged. He ventures further and finds hallways and rooms that seem to stretch endlessly, some lit and others dark. The walls are constructed in a way that makes no sense and in places the floor is slanted up or down to a small opening that a person can only crawl through it. In places there is furniture and other objects embedded in the floor or walls. Some places appear clean while others appear to be decaying and dirty. At one point we get a view of a man monitoring Clark on a closed-circuit TV without explanation. Eventually, Clark makes his way back to the doorway and tells others about the mysterious discovery. Among them is Mary who only halfway believes Clark after he sketches out what he thinks he saw. (Now, Mary has had her own problems having grown up with an unfit mother who kept her from going outdoors, so she has issues herself.) Later, when Clark doesn’t show up, Mary goes looking for him at the furniture store only to discover the secret door herself and enter this strange world. I won’t go into what happens to both of them, but what follows can be described as equally troubling and terrifying. There are more than inanimate objects down there. There are beings that may not be entirely human. We never find out what this place is about, but it is described as a minimized version of what places are. The place is like having a dream where you can only halfway remember what is there. Don’t expect there to be any resolution to the situation. I think the point is to make something beyond creepy for the viewer. If that is the point, it succeeds, but the movie is short on plot at best. The director, 20-year-old Kane Parsons, has never made a movie before and is known for making creepy YouTube videos as a teenager. Somehow, he got the backing to make this movie with studio A24 using A-list stars. Given the lack of resolution, I can’t say I enjoyed it. It is more like an extended version of a Twilight Zone episode than a movie. I will say that the production design team must have had a ball designing the sets for it. They outdid themselves at every turn. There is talk of Parsons making this into a series of movies in the future. I am sure he is full of more ideas.