The A24 movie “Backrooms” is a horror movie set for release on May 29.
The concept of “Backrooms” originated in a found footage horror series on YouTube created by Kane Parsons, a 20-year-old visual effects artist and filmmaker.
Parsons’ YouTube series follows a man who falls through the floor and into the “Backrooms,” an endless abyss of liminal office space.
The simple concept of being completely alone in a maze of eerie rooms has horrified and captivated the internet since the release of Parsons’ series, to the point that A24 signed a deal with him to turn his found footage concept into a larger project.
“I feel like the ‘Backrooms,’ especially in our generation, has been such a big thing since we’ve been little. I feel like it’s always had that same level of popularity,” junior Adam Schwantes said.
Though, with any movie adaptation, there’s a strong possibility that the original spirit of the “Backrooms” series will be lost in the film.
The “Backrooms” series is iconic for its found footage style camera quality, buzzing, eerie audio quality and a sense that something is missing. The series puts the viewer directly into Parsons’ creative vision, making them feel as if they are truly witnessing the experience of a man falling out of one reality and into another.
“I’m hopeful for this movie, especially with [Kane Parsons] being the director, because I feel like a lot of these new movie adaptations…like ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s,’ and ‘Minecraft,’ I feel like the directors have lost the plot,” Schwantes said.
Many fans of the video games “Minecraft” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s” were disappointed with the recent film adaptations.
Parsons has the ability to fully capture his creative vision in his partnership with A24, though the only directing experience Kane Parsons has is from his original “Backrooms” series on YouTube.
“I’m excited to see how they will incorporate a lot more of the scary elements. It’s definitely a lot harder to bring to a movie than just a story,” junior Ash Taylor said.
The horror of the backrooms mainly comes from a sense of isolation from the world, being confined to a liminal space with nothing but yourself, and it’s not likely that A24 will create a movie that fully embodies the original horror found in the YouTube series.
“I think the camera quality is too good, and it makes it not scary…I think it kind of just looks like a joke, it’s not even scary,” junior Miguel Matts said.
Because the concept of the “Backrooms” has almost been modernized in a sense through A24’s production, there’s simply no way the film will be eerie in the same ways Parsons’ series on YouTube was.
A well-budgeted “Backrooms” movie is a dream come true for fans of the concept, and for Parsons, his creative vision of the “Backrooms” is likely to be very different than what fans truly want: a movie that captures the horror and isolation of the “Backrooms.” This is impossible to achieve in a movie produced by such a big corporation, like A24. The company has to fulfill the needs of the viewing majority, and not die-hard fans of the “Backrooms.”
