Like  “ Obsession ”, released in theaters on May 13, “ Backrooms ” is part of a new line of films led by young directors, brought up between nostalgia for the 90s and the rise of YouTube. A frightening mix, and above all dangerous for the older generation. This time, we are dealing with Kane Parsons in the role of director, until now better known under the pseudonym Kane Pixels, a YouTuber with 3 million subscribers. The director, aged only 20, arrives on the big screen through his project “Backrooms”, which he has been carrying out for four years already, since it is through his videos riding the popular wave of creepypasta “ Backrooms ” that the young YouTuber made himself known. Â
Born on the internet, first in 2019, the legend of “backrooms” emerges from a first photo, of deserted offices. The only reference elements? Hideous yellow wallpaper, all lit by pale neon lights, and above all: no exit in sight. The snowball effect is underway, and seven years later, millions of Internet users know of the existence of the legend, each contributing a piece to the building. Some imagined new backroom rooms, others monsters looking for victims, always with the same idea in mind: to scare. In the collective imagination, backrooms now have thousands of rooms, kilometers of distressing corridors, hundreds of frightening monsters. All without any possible outcome. Today, the backrooms are no more than a legend, it is a true monument of internet horror, now brought to the big screen.
In his first feature film, Kane Parsons uses this legend to follow in the footsteps of Clark, a failed architect who ended up managing a furniture store. Divorced, alone and an alcoholic, his only interactions with the outside world are with his two young employees and his shrink, Mary. Angry, withdrawn and broke, Clark finds himself sleeping in one of the beds stored in his store. Installed in this routine, the main character cares about nothing, except his electricity bill, which is rising visibly. One evening, while he is looking for the origin of this price increase, Clark discovers a strange door in the basement of his store, which takes him straight into a room with yellow wallpaper and an atmospheric atmosphere. heavy. Â
The commandments of the Gen Z-style horror film
Kane Parsons respects the rules of horror perfectly. Spoiler alert. Our favorite?  The cameraman never dies  or  cameraman never dies , for the purists. The concept is simple: whoever holds the camera, even for a short moment, is simply invincible. Or almost. Beware of whoever asks it, therefore. You have been warned. Â
The oldest commandment, and certainly the most annoying, remains and will always remain that hero who does not run fast enough. The one who falls, the one who gets injured, or simply the one for whom, it seems, the situation is not so serious. So, that gives us just one desire, to enter the screen, shake it, even insult it sometimes. In short, make him understand that he needs to move. And “Backrooms” is no exception to the rule. New mechanism, new way of doing things, new basic character, but still the same habit of making them move too slowly, of making them react latency. And, even if we hate it, we keep coming back, for the adrenaline, the twists and turns, and the fact that here, it’s rather believable. Â
In the middle of these commandments, we discover the touch of Kane Parsons, continuing on the momentum that earned him internet recognition. Featuring this maze of dead-end rooms with an indescribable aesthetic:… “It’s like describing a dog to someone who’s never seen one, then asking them to draw one…” we explain at the start of the film. Add to that a yellowish and distressing setting, combined with very good cinematography and a paralyzing sequence of “found footage” à la “Blair Witch” or “ rec ”: Kane Parsons seems to have put his experience as a YouTuber to the benefit of his art, and it works.
 Backrooms  offers us something new and well brought out: a distressing horror thanks to the oppressive settings, which never say too much, which leaves room for suspense, all while showing enough so that the horror is very real, and that the result is not just an imagination. And, all of this, carried by strong characters and relevant relationships.
What if the horror was the men? Â
Call us misanders, but we identified the real villain of the story in the first 30 minutes of the film. Clark’s ego, his inability (or refusal) to question himself, his refusal to change, to become a better person, for himself and for those around him, is what really frightened us. In small doses at first, like yet another man-child who comforts himself in his misfortune until perhaps he breaks down, perhaps wakes up and, for the luckiest, until he changes. But, in “Backrooms”, Clark does not change, although he is pushed to the extremes of his abilities, whether physical or mental, to the limits of what the mind can support, the main character only comforts himself in his vices and failings.
In parallel with this unsympathetic and egocentric male character, we discover Mary. “ Backrooms ” here offers us a female main character like we should have had for a very long time. An anti-scream queen, that’s how one could describe Renate Reinsve. Far from the brainless female character, Mary is calm, aware of the situation and does not get carried away into over-the-top reactions. Mary had a difficult childhood. The film shows it, we know it, but she never uses it as an anvil. Unlike Clark, Mary doesn’t negotiate, because she knows it’s useless. Â
In short, with well-established characters, relevant relationships, a story that gives meaning to an urban legend that didn’t always have any on the internet, well-thought-out scenes and above all a good dose of horror, “Backrooms” won us over from the beginning to the, almost, end. Because we will admit to having been a little disappointed by the last minutes, with a taste of unfinished business in the mouth. What really happens to Mary? What is this place really? But wouldn’t that also be the backrooms? Unexplored corridors, like parts of us that, like Mary and Clark, we do not wish to revisit and that we sometimes prefer to leave dried up in the depths of our unconscious.
