Backrooms (2026)

Show Opener

Kris 0:04

Behind every good horror movie is the death of a marriage. So true.

Movie Introduction

Kris 0:13

The internet has a way of turning one unsettling image into an entire mythology. In 2019, an anonymous 4chan post gave users a fluorescent lit maze of yellow walls, stained carpet, and empty office space. From there, the concept spread into creepypasta, built around the idea that someone could slip out of reality by moving through it the wrong way. A few years later, Caden Parsons turned that shared nightmare into a nine-minute found footage short on YouTube. And by 2023, A24 and an atomic monster joined the production, and Parsons was set to make his directorial debut at the age of 20. The story follows a therapist whose patient disappears into an impossible dimension, forcing her to enter a world of endless rooms, work logic, and institutional secrets in search of someone who may already be beyond reach. This week we're talking about backrooms.

Greetings & Salutations

Kris 1:24

Greetings and salutations end, welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

Sean 1:36

Total joke. A waste of time.

Kris 1:38

Or a slash. Totally killer, pun intended. My name is Chris. I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur Sean.

Sean 1:47

Ahoy there, Matees.

Kris 1:49

And the paranormal paramour, Binx. You are your fucking brain, you dipshit.

Sean 1:54

You're tuning into Backrooms, but if you support the show, you'll also get to hear our B-side at the end of this episode where we get into what brand mascots would be genuinely terrifying in the backrooms.

Kris 2:05

Well, we have a long list of mascots to get to, but before we

Spoiler-free Discussion

Kris 2:10

get there, what were you expecting going into this one?

Sean 2:12

I can tell you I didn't know anything about the backrooms going into this film, like literally nothing. And I had a whole lot of people telling me that I needed to watch some of the YouTube videos before going into this one so I could better understand the film. I was hearing a lot of if you don't know about it, you're gonna be confused or it's not gonna land, or things like that. And so it kind of got me worried going into the film. So I did end up watching the original short film and a video surrounding some of the lore before going into the the watch of this movie. So I did kind of do a little bit of homework, maybe just in fear of just not understanding the movie. And I can honestly tell you that it is kind of beneficial, I think, maybe to watch some of these videos beforehand because this movie doesn't always do a great job at giving you much of like anything with explanation.

Binx 3:02

I also didn't know a single thing about this. I don't even remember this 4chan image back in the day at all, actually. So I must have missed this whole element of YouTube and this mini-series and this image and overall liminal spaces. I just wasn't, I guess, a part of that side of the internet as much as I maybe would have thought I would have. But I didn't do any homework either. I went into this so like blind. I remembered the teaser trailer. I remember thinking, oh, A24 isn't on their weird kick. But I didn't even think that it was anything but an original weird piece of work. I didn't even know who Kane Parsons was until it was talked about how incredible it was to have such someone so young, especially another YouTuber in horror, create a movie like this.

Kris 3:56

You know what's interesting is I never saw any of the marketing for this movie because I have been so out of touch with going to the theater except for the movies that we've done this year. And even then, I've arrived after the trailers have been playing. I was put on to the fact that this was a horror movie and that there may be some intriguing concepts at play. Now, as for the internet shit, I didn't know anything about that until Lucas, who is one of our patrons, actually hosted a watch party in our Discord server of the YouTube videos. And well, I sound like such a fucking hello fellow kids person right now, but I didn't get to catch all of them. I was like, okay, I see the appeal now. I don't know the lore, but I do get the appeal of it.

Binx 4:42

Yeah. And I have seen the videos after the fact, right? Which it's something, that's for sure. But going into this, I will say that I expected this like unsettling atmospheric tension. And I think that whether you've watched the YouTube videos before or after, you can kind of see that correlation, even with the little bit that you get, whether it's like just the yellow wallpaper as the movie poster or maybe the teaser trailer itself, I just wanted to see some weird ass shit. Because even the small bit of conversation I had, maybe going into the movie, like booking the ticket and sitting down, I thought this is just gonna be really fucking weird. But I hope it's my kind of weird. And I just wanted to feel suffocated. I wanted to feel lost. I wanted to like be terrified. And I don't know. I I think that I'm I maybe got what I got in terms of the experience because I didn't watch the YouTube videos beforehand. Because maybe if I had, I would have maybe had different expectations or maybe had a different experience overall in terms of like being scared and feeling lost.

Kris 5:47

I am curious now what it would have felt like to go into this movie without seeing any of the videos behind it or any of the lore behind it. And I mean, going into this one when you have that in mind, the obvious expectation is this liminal space horror. And yes, it's creepypasta, it's internet shit. Okay, yes. And that stuff is there 100%. But what I found to be super surprising is that this edition or this adaptation of it actually feels super emotionally grounded, and way more so than I even expected, because this digs past being like a vibe-based YouTube video stretched to 90 minutes. And what I think that what I think actually works really well is the setting. And it's set in the 90s, it pulls us out of a world of smartphones, AI, instant documentation, easy digital answers, everything is cameras, answering machines, like sketches on paper. No cell phones, no cell phones, but okay, maybe this is just me. The biggest feeling that I got is that even though it's so 1990s, it also feels very current. And the concept of the backrooms kept making me think about generative AI.

Sean 7:05

Yeah, for sure.

Binx 7:06

That's a good one. That's a really, really good one. I mean, it's that is interesting though, because he made these videos on Blender. Not that that's AI, right? It's but it's using software, it's using technology, it's using that resource. But look at what just something as simple as that has kind of just like morphed itself, and then we just find ourselves in its own loop. Oh boy, wow, you've made me really think on that one. Damn.

Sean 7:32

Maybe this is just the reality we'll live in one day. Who knows? I can see where you're coming from for sure. And I think I don't know, this is the 90s vibe, the whole vintage 90s vibe. It just one that concept alone, that visual alone, plus the fact that I feel like I missed out on this entire like phenomenon of backrooms lore when it came out, or the 4chan to the creepypasta, to the YouTube shorts, to all of that stuff, video games, all of it. It really just makes me feel my age a little bit because I feel like this whole thing passed me by. And I don't know that that's necessarily something that like make or makes or breaks your ability to enjoy the film. I think that it definitely could, potentially. Uh, but I'm sure that there's people out there that don't have any history into backrooms, watch this movie and and genuinely enjoy it. So I'm sure there's that, but I think it's it is interesting to jump into a movie like this with no concept of anything behind it, and then just try to break down what's happening in this movie. And I think what's interesting is it ended up being a movie that definitely felt interesting in its setting. I think conceptually this movie is very interesting. I don't know that it did all that much for me, to be honest with you. I think it left more I left with more questions than I did answers, which sometimes is good, sometimes it's not. I don't know. The movie, to your point, Binks, was it scary? I'm not 100% sure. I think that whether you watch stuff beforehand or not, I don't know that that makes it any more or less scary. I think that if this type of setting in general scares you, then this is gonna be an effective movie as far as fear goes. But overall, I think there's some some interesting moments of like tension, but I don't know that I was even emotionally attached to what this movie was doing either. That's fascinating.

Kris 9:34

Yeah, that I mean, that is fascinating. I wanna I want to circle back a little bit to where you're talking about with this tension, because I don't find this movie scary. There's some moments of it that I absolutely see how it's gonna get people 100%. But what I find to be more tense about this movie or anxiety-inducing of this movie, is that these are spaces that understand the broad shape of a room, but without really understanding the feeling of a room, the feeling of existence. And what this movie does more so for me is uh the way that it anchors itself into this like trauma isolation, the way that it anchors itself into repressed emotions. And there's actually a quote early in the film, something to the effect of do you ever feel like you're living behind glass, watching life happen, but never stepping into it? What I loved about this is that I could okay, basically ignore all of the horror elements of it, and yeah, sure, those were fun and tense, but this gave me something really interesting to spend time with.

Binx 10:43

Yes, yes, yes. The reason I thought it was so interesting you said that, Sean, is because I think when I watched this movie for the second time, plot twist, I've watched this movie three times. Um the second time I went into it and someone had said to me that they could see how this was in conversation with other quote-unquote liminal spaces, but not quite branded as such films like your favorite Skinnamarink. And I think that although I can see some correlations to it, it doesn't quite play on your senses like that movie. And yes, it may challenge the imagination, but not not too much because you're just seeing what you're seeing, or there really is nothing to see. And then you have to settle into that, the lack of whether you don't even know what to imagine or what you should be imagining, et cetera, right? Like skin American, I think it kind of guides you to an extent. Um, undertone is maybe another one that played on my senses at the very least. So you build this distrust of the environment and it feels weird, but it's never extremely terrifying. I think that, Chris, like you were saying, what's terrifying, or maybe what's really challenging at the very least, is the commentary of not just like trauma, it's just using the psychological definition of liminal space. And that's something I didn't expect. Like when I say liminal space, I think of what we see, right? These empty spaces like an empty Sears or an empty garage, et cetera. But I never thought I was gonna watch a movie that also talks about liminal spaces in the sense of transition points in your life and conversations of what trauma looks like when you're in that transition. And so watching this movie as many times as I have, I feel like each time that I have, I'm like even more emotionally invested. I'm like cracked wide the fuck open. I'm feeling like really God raw, especially with that line that you just said, Chris. Hearing it again, I'm like, oh, I can't. It's just too much. But I think that that's really impressive. I didn't expect that watching a movie that was based on a 4chan image.

Kris 12:55

Yeah, I mean, you really dig into this idea of these creative writing exercises where you're given a prompt or an object and you had to write a whole thing behind it. And that's essentially what this movie is. And sure, maybe in our youth we think about the creepiest, weirdest fucking conspiracy stories we can. But sometimes the real horror is just aging and the shit that you go through in your life. Now, what I will say, because I have so much to more to say emotionally about this movie, but one of the things that stood out to me is how many people are calling this a fucking liminal space movie. And I've seen more people use the word liminal than I think I've ever seen in my life. And I feel like, do y'all even know what the word fucking liminal means? I don't know. But what I will say is this physical space in this movie, pause in the emotional space, the physical space, my god, what a great Halloween Horror Nights attraction this would be.

Sean 13:51

Oh, I mean, a hundred percent it would be a great kind of attraction to walk through to experience because I'm listening to all of your points here, and I I'm very curious to see. Like, I don't know, for whatever reason, emotionally didn't hit for me, but everything else, I feel like, yes, I question myself. I'm like, do I like quote-unquote liminal space movies? I don't know. Maybe I question myself, but then at the same time, I kind of think of what I thought worked well in this movie, and what I thought worked well in this movie is everything that I feel like I didn't get enough of in the movie. Like I wanted more of the exploration within the back rooms. I wanted more of just that living in that space. A little bit like I don't know, for me, and we'll break it down in the spoiler section without getting in too deep with it now. For me, I didn't give a fuck about any of the characters in this movie. Like, I just did not care at all for any of them. I don't think we we spent enough time with any of them. I don't think I cared about our main characters at all or the other two characters that we'll talk about. Like, I just for me, I didn't invest in any single person. And so for me, my interest was just let's explore these backrooms because I want that. I want some of that found footage that we got. I want a little bit more of all of that.

Kris 15:10

Why do I feel like we've gone right back to the skin of Marink episode and just turned the tables? Actually, we probably need like one or two more of these skinamarink adjacent movies, and then we're gonna all of a sudden have like the primary colors of Skinamarink. We had one very blue, we have one very yellow, we'll see what happens next.

Sean 15:28

What I love about this movie are the things that are closest to skinamarink. I like all the stuff that we don't see head on. I like just exploring the unknown.

Kris 15:38

And what I love most about this movie are the things that don't remind me about Skinmarink, and here we fucking are. I 100% can value and appreciate what you're getting at with the Skinner Rink adjacent pieces. I find it interesting that you don't give a shit about the characters because for me, the characters are what actually makes this a worthwhile story. Not that they're hmm, I think my favorite characters I've ever seen in a movie. I'm not talking about these folks the same way I'm talking about Indy Neverettian obsession. But the emotional anchors in this movie are exactly what tips it over the edge because they're what takes it from being a room that can be like a physical prison, but also make a room a memory. A room is a psychological prison, a room is something that you're afraid to leave, desperate to move on from, but so scared of actually leaving behind. Every character in this movie really brings that to life. And especially with our main character, Clark, works in a furniture store, owns a furniture store. That shit is full of fake rooms. And there's just like this beautiful duality of what the back rooms are versus the emotional rooms in our minds. And there's a lot happening there, but I don't think this movie works without the characters bringing all of that to the forefront. For me, in fact, I think some of the things that worked the least was when it tried to be scarier. It tried to be a little bit monstrous, it tried to be conspiracy-like, even towards the third act.

Binx 17:08

Yes, I agree with you there because I think that it's the perfect balance of what I would imagine the other spectrum, maybe it is undertone, I guess, is the maybe the third, the red of this, you know, color palette, right? To an extent. But I just feel like we just get enough curiosity while also getting something to actually like watch and witness. Before we started recording, I was talking to you guys about how I played the backrooms game. And I spent 40 minutes by myself roaming these halls. I bored myself to death. I'm so sorry for whoever had to watch me play because after a while, I'm like, all right, get me out of here. I'm kind of bored. Imagine that in a movie where I'm literally just watching someone for 40 minutes straight get lost in a hallway. At the very least, I felt like there was some symbolism to it. At the same time, a lot of that also has to do with what we've kind of already mentioned. It is that 90s set, right? It is the camcorder footage style and the yellow of the backrooms feels like something's off. Like it's almost comforting. Reminded me like a little bit of like butter, but maybe butter that has been sitting out a little bit too long. You're not too sure if it's good anymore. It's like this weird thing. It I almost felt like I could sense what the backrooms would smell like. Musty.

Sean 18:20

Musty yellow.

Binx 18:22

Yes. Or like an empty Sears in South Florida, humidity, not good. Just paint it yellow.

Kris 18:30

For as gross as that fucking sounds, I think this movie has a lot of potential. And there are a lot of aspects of it that I don't think live up to its potential. Mainly the ending of this movie. It is such a struggle point for me. It's anticlimactic. It very much gets like I feel like the wind was taken out of my sails, uh, so to speak. I think who this movie will be good for are folks who really uh enjoy the original background material. I think you if you also like to unpack things psychologically and emotionally, I think this will be good for you. I think if you like conspiracy theories, this is gonna be great for you. But I think if you want something that's a more cohesive product that doesn't feel like it's baiting towards a sequel, it's gonna be hit or miss.

Sean 19:18

Yeah, I think you're right. I think one, I agree totally. By the time we get to the end of this movie, you kind of realize, at least for me, that the movie kind of lost itself along the way once it got to the ending. But yeah, I think this is definite, the definitely feels like a movie for people that are or have been into backrooms since its conception on the internet. I think that you can still like this movie if you're really, you know, into kind of obscure horror, abstract stuff, things like that. There is stuff there for you, but I don't think that this specifically feels like a lot of other types of those films, in my opinion. I feel like if you've if you've never heard of backrooms, there's still a solid chance that you would you you may like it, but you won't really get into it. I don't know. Like it's a it's kind of a I think it could be one of those movies that proves itself to be a little bit, you know, divisive a little bit. Like you you either you either are into the lore and you're bought in, or you don't know anything about it and you don't get it and it kind of fizzles out. And then there's probably just going to be a small percentage of people in between, in my opinion.

Binx 20:22

Yeah, and I I would say it's it's an interesting ending because I think that it certainly doesn't lean into the explanation of things. It doesn't rely on spoon feeding exposition for you. And most of the time that's something that people are hoping for. I think, especially nowadays, everyone wants everything explained to them, like to the T. No one wants to feel curious, which is a whole other conversation. But for something that is like really Rubik's Cube-like in terms of this film, I mean, it's a tough one. You really are gonna either like it or you're not in terms of how it ends. Personally, I actually did like it, even though I hadn't seen any of the material, but it's more so because I found it to be a little bit refreshing and more of like, oh shit, now I'm really curious. I I think it's a very fine line to walk. There's gonna be a pocket of maybe like five to 10% of people that are like me, maybe more. I'm just putting a number out there, but that are curious enough to not feel like there's a sour taste in their mouth. And it's more so because of the last, last final moments that I feel that way too. But I think I'm with you guys, like sci-fi fans. I would be so curious what Mac would think of this movie. I think he'd kind of find it boring, but then I think he'd also find it fascinating. It's almost like a it's a weird toss up. I don't know how how he would feel, but I would be curious, maybe Vaughn.

Kris 21:52

I don't know. I think he and his wife both would enjoy this movie. And I think it's because it loses enough of the Visual snow and the POV perspective. I mean, there's a little bit of that, but not enough of that to really make it jarring. I think Mac would fuck with this.

Binx 22:09

It's just like a lot of intense creativity. I think people that also like love the obscure and like David Lynch and that kind of stuff would really vibe with this because it's just like, what the fuck am I watching? But I think I liked it.

Kris 22:23

Yeah. Thinking that you like it is a bold statement. I thought I liked it. And then I started to think about it. And I was like, maybe I don't. But then damn, there's so many things that I do like that I get excited about. So we're gonna see how this movie actually shakes out with its ratings.

The Gore Score

Kris 22:37

But before we get there, Sean, how would you describe the core score?

Sean 22:40

Well, there really isn't a ton of gore in this movie. I think it it definitely has its moments, and you do see some blood, but overall you're not getting a ton of it. So this one earns itself a pretty tame and low gore

The Animal Report

Sean 22:52

score.

Kris 22:52

And what about the animal report?

Binx 22:54

Well, the band Flock of Seagulls would not be a fan. Seagulls were not safe in this backrooms, and neither was an rat. It was off-screen though, so we're okay, I guess, but that was also mentioned.

Scoring

Kris 23:09

Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings. Backrooms from 2026 was it a hack or a slash?

Binx 23:15

I'll go ahead and kick us off because I'm a little nervous about this one, how this one's gonna pan out, but that's okay. Well, I've already mentioned that I've watched this film a few times already, and some of you may be thinking, what the fuck's wrong with her? That's fair. That's okay. But here's the thing like I've mentioned, I found that with each time that I've watched this, I've fallen deeper into its themes and its subconscious, right? Like I walked in thinking I was gonna get the most basic weird ass film, and I left feeling like I've been dissected every single time, like with the smallest of cuts. And I think it's a film that you leave almost unsure of where to start to unpack, but that's only if you're open and a fan of more of the like psychological, thought-provoking kinds of films. There's a calling for those that maybe relate to ruminating thoughts, to these like habitual loops and patterns of behavior that you wish that you could escape, but you can't, or sometimes worse, I'd say you think that you have escaped them and it turns out that you haven't. And I found that I was really relating to that kind of sentiment. I was relating to this like universal human experience that was being told in this labyrinth that is the backrooms. And I was not expecting that at all. And I'll be honest, I think a big part of that too is that not to bring up Kane's age, but you can't help but think about it. It's like he's a 20-year-old kid, not a kid, he's a grown adult, but you know, at 16, he was a kid. So I just feel like I just was really shocked. And I was rocked and I was not ready for something like this. I was ready for the jump scares. I was ready for like the weird, uncanny figures, a quick, thoughtless watch that would just pass by, maybe something that would just sit and all right, that's it. I watched it once, don't have to think about it again. And instead, I feel like I used the example of a Rubik's Cube. That's what this felt like to me. I was trying to solve a Rubik's Cube that every time I tur twisted and turned it, I was getting more emotional or more like, what the fuck am I watching and more excited? So I definitely think that this is a movie that is going to land uniquely different for every single person. Like you're either going to like it, you're going to hate it. Maybe one day you'll feel differently about it today. Maybe tomorrow there's going to be something that someone says to you and you're like, damn, that was in backrooms, wasn't it? And I think that that's really cool. I think that that is the kind of movie that I love because you leave the theater, you and your friends, or even just you with your own fucking thoughts, and you're like, what did I just watch? And you are trying to unpack it together and it creates conversation like this. So for me, it is undoubtedly a slash.

Sean 25:55

Yeah, you know what? I I want to throw it out there that I don't hate this movie. I think it's pretty okay. I kind of had a feeling going into it that I wasn't going to be super into it just based on what I heard about it, what I knew about it, and from the trailer and the stuff that I watched going into it. I I think overall, I think this movie did a handful of things very, very well. I think the set design in this movie is incredible. The score, the editing, especially the editing. There's a lot here that really does work, but I couldn't shake this feeling that there was something off about the movie, and I think that it kind of lost itself in the third act, and I think it gives you where it gives us a reveal that I think could have been way scarier and way cooler, and even what we got in the short films on YouTube would have been better, in my opinion. And I I don't know, I get this concept of why it was what it was, but but still, I don't know, something felt off. And so for me, this ended up being one of those movies where I liked the idea of the film way more than the actual execution of the film. I didn't hate the movie. I think there are things in this movie that genuinely work, but the deeper it went, the more it felt like the movie was holding back from its own potential. And I think it kind of gets lost inside its own concept. The pacing becomes a problem in some areas, and I think instead of feeling hypnotic, parts of the movie just feel empty in a way. And I know that emptiness is technically the point of the backrooms, I get it, but the atmosphere alone can only carry a movie so far before you need stronger storytelling underneath it. And so by the end of it, I was more fascinated with the idea than satisfied. And I think I left with way more questions than I walked in with. And honestly, I can't say that I would personally just want to watch this one again or even recommend it to anyone. So for me, I gotta put backrooms on the back burner and give it a hack. It's a softer hack because I think that the movie overall is okay, but it's not, it's just not strong enough for a slash for me.

Kris 28:01

I'm sorry, Sean. Atmosphere can only take you so far before you need more storytelling underneath it. It's such a wild thing to say from a man who evangelizes skin and marine. What the hell? Yeah, there's so much more storytelling in this movie.

Sean 28:17

No, there's a whole storyline to skin emarink. You're following these kids. Sean.

Kris 28:22

At best, a concept, a prayer. Maybe that's a wild and audacious thing to say. There are things that work in this movie and there are things that don't work in this movie. The backrooms themselves, yeah, they're effective. Sure, there are aspects of this movie and moments that actually do feel a little creepy. But what pushes this movie over the edge is the way it preys upon me trying to be in my healing era and really just digging into therapy. This movie uses the backrooms as a faulty and misremembered copy of reality, but it uses them too as like a reflection of loneliness, of resentment, of memory, of the emotional spaces that people get stuck inside. And listen, I'm going through some shit in my life right now that is really making me circle the drain on a lot of really intense pain points and deeply rooted childhood traumas. But maybe that lends itself well to me getting the most from this movie. This movie, I think, gives us a story and a woman and a character in Mary that gives us a stronger emotional center than I even expected. Her relationship to that trauma, to that fear. Doing closed spaces overall makes this movie feel more personal. And then her foil, sure, we have someone else who has an uglier story, but the movie isn't simply just treating him as someone who stumbles into a monster maze. He's already isolated, he's already unraveling, he's already refusing to take accountability and to take responsibility for parts of his life, which is infuriating. I'm a mix on so much more beyond that. There's a lot of stuff in this movie that I'm like, what the fuck are we doing, guys? But where Sean may think that it doesn't really live up to its own potential, I think this movie actually earns its concept. The atmosphere works, the production design is doing the real work here. And the central idea that the backrooms are just this physical expression of a psychological enclosure. It's done well enough that its weakness doesn't undo what it builds. And what it builds for me is a slash. Although I will say, it might be temporary. Catch me at the end of the year, because if I watch the movie again and I have as underwhelming an experience with the end of this movie, it's probably gonna be a hack. It's ironic for a movie that says the devil's in the details and he gives us this fucking ending. But that's neither here nor there. Backrooms has managed to squeak by with only one hack and two splashes. And before we start bouncing around in the back rooms, we're gonna head straight towards Polar Territory. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll see you in there.

A Word From Our Sponsor

Sean 31:19

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Kris 33:03

Welcome

Welcome to the Spoiler Zone

Kris 33:04

back, folks, from here on out. The walls are yellow, the lights are buzzing, and the spoilers are fully abound.

The Slay by Slay

Kris 33:09

So let's step into that sleigh by sleigh.

Sean 33:11

Yeah, let's jump into it. There's not a lot of kills in this movie, and sadly, we don't really see the kills up front, but we do get a couple of significant deaths in this one, which we will break down for you here in just a second. But let's start all the way at the beginning with the first kill in the opening of the movie with the random async worker that I believe was semi-revealed later with a name tag to be Nair and Warren getting chased by some monster in the backrooms that you know we don't really see what's happening, but it does sound like he's being attacked and or eaten alive. We're not sure, but it was for me a pretty cool kill. I mean, the found footage of it all just really got me interested, I will say that.

Kris 33:54

It was given Cloverfield.

Sean 33:56

I'm into it. I'm into that kind of stuff. Give me more of that.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Yeah, it was fun. And I loved just like the rush of the right into the found footage of it all.

Binx 34:07

Like you're chasing, you're like, where the fuck is he going? The corner when he's like turning that corner and oh yeah, something's something's there.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

You don't even you barely even see it, and you're like, what the fuck is that? I loved it.

Kris 34:21

Yeah, that was uh it was intense to say the least. It was a decent cold open for a movie. But I do want to pour one out real quick for an emotional death that we get before we get into like the next literal death, Sean. The seagull? No, not the seagull, but not the seagull. Scully too. I was gonna pay some respects to the death of Clark's marriage. Holy shit, we really dwell in the night that ended his marriage for a long time. Many times. We kept going right back to it. It reminded me when I was first getting therapy and going through this process with PTSD. I was subjected to prolonged exposure therapy where you have to sit in a room with your therapist and just talk about everything in excruciating detail, and you keep telling it, telling it, telling it, telling it, telling it until it stops like giving you like an emotional response. I feel it's a little barbaric, but listen looking at this man go through that again and go through this role play, fuck, that was tough.

Sean 35:24

It is tough for sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

It's a lot, especially when you literally see her later on. Well, version of her later on. My girl.

Kris 35:35

A version behind every good horror movie is the death of a marriage. So true now.

Sean 35:41

How unfortunate, you know? How unfortunate. It's an interesting theme of the movie of just the backstory of Clark as a character, which I'm sure we'll dive further into his character and all that stuff. The death of that marriage, the reliving of that night that we get in a couple of different parts in this movie was definitely something to behold. I I mean, it just it just doesn't make you really like the guy very much, but you know, it is what it is. Uh we can so, but I do think the next actual kill that we get in this movie is another pretty awesome moment in the film with Bobby getting dragged down into the whatever room cave-like dwelling of a room that this potential monster is in, and just getting then dragged into another room and just getting killed or eaten alive. Like the whole thing still felt a lot like a found footage movie or just kind of like an exploration gone wrong. It's almost like you think a movie where you're diving into a cave or jumping into a cave or exploring this weird thing, and then like this happens, right? But you're in this backroom section, and so pretty cool though. I liked it a lot.

Kris 36:55

You know, when a man named Clark goes on an expedition, something bad is bound to happen. Sorry for you, Bobby. And Bobby as a character already was a little annoying to me, but eh, annoying in a wholesome way. There isn't really anything wrong with him. But when he manages to get back up and then doesn't get that rope off, I was like, fuck, dude.

Sean 37:14

Yeah, you knew it was gonna happen.

Kris 37:16

I was wondering if he was gonna simply be dragged down or if he was gonna be like bisected in some way.

Binx 37:22

Oh yeah. That would have been brutal. I think that we didn't really touch much on this, but this movie to me is also kind of funny. Like, there's certainly some moments that are actually kind of like weird funny. And Bobby and Kat both, respectively, are kind of that, especially at the beginning, because even just his demeanor, the fact that he might already be high going into this kind of scenario, it sets itself for like, oh, usually the comedic relief is going to get got very promptly. What I wasn't expecting was the fact that they did a really good job of what would prompt the two of them to actually go down there and chase after him. And it's that they probably wouldn't have. They literally got pushed and propelled to go down there because sometimes we find ourselves, especially with found footage, right? It's like they're recording and they're doing things that they typically just wouldn't, you wouldn't do that or you wouldn't prioritize doing that. And this was the perfect setup for you need to go down to the lair, whether you like it or not, and you're gonna witness that dragging the blood on the floor, just like the quick it almost felt like it was a slurp of like this monster just slurping up his meal, closing the hatchet, and then peeking it right back up just for the next little bite. Crazy hell to the no, but R.I.P. Bobby was funny, loved his outfit.

Sean 38:48

Yeah, there was that level of I guess comedic undertones with those two characters, with Bobby and Kat, and you know, some would also say the pirate Clark entity that we get as also a comedic undertone of this film, just the way he looks or it looks or whatever. But yeah, so what we don't know is exactly what happened to Kat. That's the real question. We know that Kat got decapitated, and we see her decapitated head in Clark's new refrigerator and his new uh you know bachelor pad that he's got going on

Spoiler Zone

Sean 39:21

there. But what do you think happened to Kat?

Kris 39:23

Yeah, decapitated, and that's so sad. I mean, she really had a slumber party massacre slash Friday the 13th part two of Pamela Voorhees Head in the Fridge moment, which fucking sucks. Like, oh my god, man, I really liked her so much. I'm also just attached to the actress as a whole because she's in a show on Apple TV called Shrinking and just seeing her like kind of grow up in that show. I'm like, fuck, man, don't go.

Binx 39:49

Don't get beheaded, girl. Man, she was funny, she was funny. I mean, honestly, based off of the quick moments that we get of which is the reveal, right? And and Clerk's line, I think he says something along the lines of I tried to make her understand or she couldn't understand, something like that. It's a little tough to make an insinuation. I don't know if he's I mean, is he really off his rocker that much? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Enough to just like get rid of her and be done with her because she's not bought into this idea of staying in the backrooms forever and like seeing how great it is. I think he's absolutely capable of having decapitated her, or at the very least, used her as bait, much like what Async is doing with the you know, weird little like cardboard man, you know. So I guess that's also a probable piece. But again, perfect moment of like weird, unsettling humor because the way he just like opens up that fridge and is like, damn, you caught me.

Sean 40:52

Oh well. Oh well. Yeah, I it the interesting thing here is also that there's a lot of like time lapse that happens in this movie where we don't really follow Clark and what he's up to. And so like that's another section of the movie where it's like, okay, how how much time have you been spending down here, my friend? How much time were you down here before you brought Bobby and Kat down here? What's the deal here? Like, was maybe this was just his ploy to get them in there and this was all a setup to begin with. Like, I don't know. Like, this is just there's some there's some things here that are interesting to kind of think about and explore for sure.

Kris 41:29

I do think he in earnest wanted to prove what was happening in the back rooms. I don't know that there was anything nefarious up until then, but he clearly becomes twisted in his own mind by the backrooms themselves, by his repression. And I mean, we even see it with his fate, right? The way that he ends up having a showdown with himself, which almost makes him look a little bit a little bit pitiful when he's trying to calm down Captain Clark. He ends up being destroyed by this like fucking monstrosity in this like blasphemy of his own brand. It's a little fucked up. It's a little fucked up.

Sean 42:12

It is a little fucked up.

Binx 42:13

Especially when he's just like, it's okay, we're just hardwired this way. Like thinking that his like rage backrooms version of himself, this like again, this blasphemous version of himself, is just gonna be like, ah, okay, so we're all right to be this fucking insane.

Kris 42:31

I know that we have so much to say about the movie overall, and there's a lot of great stuff in this movie in terms of how it looks. The Captain Clark was a big miss for me.

Sean 42:41

That's what I'm saying.

Kris 42:42

The more we saw him from afar, and if we got like little quick cuts and glimpses of him, but when we're confronted and have to look at him for a very long time, I mean, I admit it is a technical feat, but it took me out of it. And looking up pictures of this thing online, not a great time.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Yeah.

Sean 43:00

I agree. Even when you look at Clark's death and him getting all the way up to the point where he gets confronted by this pirate version of himself, that whole progression, all very effective. And then we get an actual like straight-on visual of the entity, and it kind of diminishes for me as well. And so the death of Clark, I think, was kind of cool getting eaten and beaten. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that entity.

Binx 43:27

It's funny because when I watched this the third time, I saw this with one of my best friends and his sister, and I was curious as to how their reaction was going to be because they're the kinds of people that like grew up watching Tim and Eric and like they have a particular sense of humor and they love South Park and that kind of like weird, like quirky stuff, right? So I thought that they would find him hilarious. And I think that it was like a joint emotion because yeah, he's really funny to look at, but if you stick to like what the fuck he Is and how like demented Clark is and what the backrooms technically is, which is like this rendering of your memories and of of the self, I guess, right? I felt like I almost felt really bad. You said pitiful earlier. Like I felt pity for this Captain Clark, this like monstrosity that's just like the weirdest looking, like CGI thing. But when he's outreaching for Mary and after being like bludgeons, I felt like really sad for it because it was just alone. It felt like it was this manifestation of Clark's loneliness, and it was just reaching out to not be alone, like consuming things because it didn't want to be alone. And that's where I felt like, oh, you look really ugly and weird, but I feel bad for you, buddy. That's a weird thing to feel, though.

Kris 44:53

I never took him as exactly just like the loneliness, but I do get it now that you bring that up. For me, when I saw him, I thought that this was Clark's projection of this monstrous figure in his life because this is a life that he doesn't want. And so this becomes even when you think back to when they're filming this like commercial and he falls on a chair, and that in itself has like this embarrassing kind of pitiful quality. And then when he's looking at Captain Clark later and you realize this is the thing that lurks in the backrooms for him, it's almost like his deepest shame and his biggest enemy is himself and the life that he's been trapped in. But the loneliness air layer, I think, adds something really nice to it. And by nice I mean fucking depressing.

Sean 45:43

Yeah, I do think it was a little bit I it felt I almost felt a little bit too easy to take this thing down, though. I mean, it didn't feel like that much of a struggle. I mean, if you just like swung at the legs and just you know punch this thing in the face a couple times, and that was it, doesn't seem that hard. You know, you put me in the backrooms, I'm probably surviving forever. You know what I mean? Give me a fucking baseball bat and it's on.

Binx 46:07

I would not last a day. That's obvious though. I would not for so many reasons. Frustration, there's no salt in the back rooms. Like, what am I gonna do? Just would not be it. But I feel like one thing that has stuck with me about this movie, aside from the many, is not so much what would I survive the backrooms, but can I listen to the backrooms like in my day-to-day currently? The score of this movie, right? Like I listen to the score in my empty house. I feel like hell the fuck nah. If I was walking around an empty target, hell to the fuck nah. Like the backroom score is weird. And I can see how it's very related to this group, Boards of Canada. They're very like atmospheric and like unsettling and and such. And I I can sense that here, like the droning of the fluorescent lights is like so prominent. At times it can feel like a vibe. Other times I'm like, oh no. Again, we think we're talking about Halloween Hornets. Could you imagine just like walking in that space? But also that music is just it's just off. It's unjust not okay. It's just not okay.

Sean 47:26

I mean, I I hear you, which is why I also think the set design for this movie was super incredible, which would also add to a great what we're talking about, fucking haunt of some kind of walking through the maze of the backrooms. I think just the way this set looked, it really brought that original still image, even from when you go back and look at that still image from 4chan to life. I think that image, when you I went back and looked at it, and there's the description that you get where it says like something like, if you're not careful and no clip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the backrooms where nothing but the stink of old musty carpet, the madness of mono yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum humbuzz, and approximately 600 million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. Like that whole description there, I think they brought that to life to an extent, right? Like I think they did a really good job with the set, and I think that's exactly what you get here. You could almost feel what that what those rooms would kind of feel like, what they would smell like, the the whole fluorescence and the maddening yellow everything, it all did come to life. Apparently, they built like 30,000 square feet of backrooms for this movie set, which led to some of the crew members actually getting lost, which is also kind of terrifying.

Binx 48:45

Yes. Renat, the main actress, had someone follow along with her when she needed to find where she needed to go. She refused to walk around the backrooms alone, and that's a smart woman.

Sean 48:57

It's wild.

Binx 48:58

Could you there is there is the backrooms in Hollywood right now, present day. There is the actual backrooms. That is terrifying. They were also saying that Kane would just like hang out there, like dead of night, just like hang out there, which of course, of course he would.

Sean 49:14

Just living in that space.

Kris 49:16

Here's what I'm thinking about. This has been built. It can be built again. But could you imagine? And I could see them doing this in Hollywood and for Halloween Horror Night specifically, a version of the backroom's haunt that has almost like rotating sections of the house, so you can't go in it the same way twice. Or at least not like reasonably, like uh with a cue times, etc. But just imagine that, like if there's sections as they could somehow spin or just rotate or switch around and reconfigure so that as you're going through the haunts and you go through it one night, it's gonna be completely fucking different the next night. That'd that'd be crazy.

Sean 49:53

That would be nuts.

Binx 49:54

That would be an insane feat, but very true to the real thing. And I I would be really impressed by that, that's for sure. I would hope that in this backrooms shift, whether it be Halloween Horror Nights or or wherever it would be, that they keep the Christmas spot, like the Christmas room. Because the fact that it was playing Burrito Sabanero was my kind of shit. I don't know who told him, I don't know why, I don't really care, but I know that tune, we all do, like the back of our head. When I was like, wait a minute, this is really scary. It's Christmas, this is a bit fucked up, and then I heard the sweet sounds of burrito sabanero, and I said, Oh, we're just in a Latino backroom space now. Where's the coquito?

Kris 50:43

Okay, but my thing is like, what fucking memory is this, my guy? I don't know, and I don't care.

Binx 50:47

I don't know and I don't care, it's mine.

Sean 50:49

Who's memory? Yeah.

Binx 50:51

It's mine, as it turns out. Somehow, Kane and I telepathically spoke and he created that with a little man with his little with his little lamp. That was so my shit, guys. I was like, hell yes. Also, just the fact that there were people merging from the sand, like stuck merging from the sand. It was giving like it was giving the exact scenario that I would think David Lynch would be so proud of, but also Cronenberg a little bit, because like just how off-putting I mean the wife looked with her reveal and her just like stomping around. It was very like the body dysmorphic figures in all of that space was like the most bizarre Christmas rendition I've probably seen in a long time.

Sean 51:36

Yeah, I think I I think like just kind of going into like the thought of like each room and like where did these rooms spawn from? Like, is this like that Christmas room? Whose memory? What kind of version of that is there? One of the coolest shots and things that this movie did was that whole segment where it went through Mary's living room from her house, right? And it like transitions from what she remembers as it, and then it goes like descends down into another version that descends down into another version that descends down until it becomes like this like completely muted version of what it was was just a really cool sequence of scenes to see visually.

Binx 52:17

An absolute feat. I don't even know how they did that, how it was shot, but my god, that was cool as hell. And also just how the the little hallway, like the entrance, that archway, just gets bigger and bigger. All of it is so crazy and settling. And right after that, we've got our dinner scene, which that's a racerhead if I've ever seen it. That's the most ridiculous combination of emotions in one shot.

Sean 52:43

It was the best scene until it wasn't.

Binx 52:46

What when what Clark's reveal? The Captain Clark's reveal.

Sean 52:49

It was the best scene until we got the entity, and then it ruined the whole thing. And then from there on it was just like, okay, whatever.

Kris 52:55

Okay. I I think it lost it for me a little bit earlier than that. And it was him saying that you can eat them. And it just looked like he's pulling the styrofoam from his belly. That shit, I was like, ah, okay, alright.

Sean 53:09

Yeah, that was kind of weird.

Kris 53:11

We're losing our way here.

Sean 53:12

Yeah. That was a little strange.

Kris 53:16

But man, I'm obviously there's so many great scenes in the backrooms themselves and how incredible they look. But I'm I'm considering this as obviously in that dinner scene, he goes through that role play again. I'm thinking back to that original therapy scene. And then I'm also thinking back to another moment where we have him sleeping in his own furniture store. And the through line from that point, this moment where you acknowledge his life is falling apart, he has a store full of beds and rooms, but not a real home. It's such a great setup for a movie about fake rooms and emotional displacement. So when he then gets to that dinner scene, and you have who appears to be his wife in the background with a fucked up face, and he's just becoming more and more and more unhinged. Man, that's what I think is so disappointing about everything that follows this, because it felt like we were really racing up to something incredible, and then just utter deflation.

Sean 54:23

Yeah, it got a little weird. I mean, there were like the the performance in that in that dinner scene was really well done. Like the hit him being unhinged and like the reveal of like how he's how hours how many weeks he's been down there at this point and figuring out how he discovered that he can eat them in general is just an interesting concept for sure. But like, even to the point of like scalping his, you know, whatever copy of his wife to put the hair on Mary and you know, as his therapist to try to now roleplay with now a costume. You know what I mean? It was just that whole piece. I mean, I I liked all of that leading up and just like the just seeing these different copies of whoever the fucker in the room and just like wow, like where what are these people? Why are they here? Why do they look so though those the the design of those people too were also that I'm into, right? Like the weird double faces, multiple eyes, things like that, moving weird. I'm into that. Give me more of that stuff.

Kris 55:26

And see, that's exactly what I'm saying. With for a movie set in the 90s and it being, and I mean, even from Kane Parsons doing like analog horror, this is such an echo of generative AI, where everything looks like it should be so right and then feels so fucking wrong because it's made by something that does not imagine or really fully understand what it means to be alive. And it everything that you see in the backrooms in that scene with like how it imagines people, it is an approximation of something that isn't really there, and it's just so fucking trippy. That's again, damn man. It it's I'm so mad because I feel like that's such a great part of this movie, and then I continue to think that everything after Mary loses her shit on Clark just wastes it, just absolutely washes it away.

Binx 56:23

It's interesting because I I can definitely see the the frustrations with it. And I think that there's a couple other like maybe potential ways where this could have gone, certainly, especially with like Captain Clark himself, like in the design, if we were to just like bare bones just start there, right? But I I I think that the scene alone and maybe just this concept, or rather the explanation of the backrooms, this idea that it's remembers only ever so slightly. Like it's somewhere out there there is this guy somewhere, and it remembers it ever so slightly. It's misremembering rather. It's not too sure. And it's so like that right there can translate to so many fucking things. Like whether it's your day-to-day, not even getting so deep with it, right? Like your day-to-day, like, did I do this or did I not? To the like most extreme things, which is like your trauma that you like remember, but it's so deep within your subconscious that you don't, but you might, and you question. Or I also relate this a lot to just personally, like OCD. And I and I feel like that's the rumination that I think about a lot, where it's like constantly not sure if I trust myself and what I'm remembering. And I think that the backrooms does a really good job, or this concept of it rather, is like a really good baseline to touch on so many different things. And then that being said, though, with what it creates with that is really just like up in the air. If it's either going to look sick as hell, like the still lives that we see with the wife or the man in like with a little lamp and stuff, or it looks as bizarre as Captain Clark, you get like a wide range of it. And I think aside from all of that, post the dinner scene, just the running and the escape and like the hysteria that Mary is going through, I don't know. I mean, at the very least, can we agree that the stairs scene alone was a hell to the fuck naw? Because if I had to go up those stairs, I would be shitting myself. That's the part of the backrooms that you don't see that's edited out. Her freaking the fuck out.

Kris 58:37

It did make it more compelling.

Binx 58:39

The door?

Kris 58:40

Yeah.

Binx 58:40

The door just goes and just falls. I said, Oh, there she goes.

Kris 58:44

Honestly, one half inch away from just losing your balance and falling straight fucking down. As someone who's afraid of heights, that was a little effective for me, for sure. Fuck that. But again, why this movie needs to be some kind of actual attraction.

Sean 58:58

Oh my god, could you imagine if you actually had to like deal with something like that?

Kris 59:01

Oh my god, no. Okay, I I just keep thinking about how this could fucking work. They could build something where it looks like there's like the illusion of depth, but then put plexiglass around it. So you look straight down and it looks like you're fucking looking straight through it, and there's some risk of danger, but you won't actually fall. Man, this would be so fucking sick.

Sean 59:20

Yeah, but see, that's the thing. I feel like that whole escape scene, that whole trying to like run from this pirate Clark entity thing and get out of there and go into that section where the staircase is, and you kind of see like the depth of this, these backrooms, and how like it just almost feels endless. And there's just all these doors where they shouldn't exist, and and entrances where they shouldn't exist, and rooms where they shouldn't exist. And I think that whole aspect of the film is it's that's why I feel like that's the most effective part of the movie. It's what makes you feel the most. It's the moment that you're going up that staircase, it's the moment that you're watching found footage of going around a corner that you're anticipating to see something, but you don't. It's those moments that make this movie so effective, but I just wanted more of those moments.

Kris 1:00:10

You know, part of what I can value from her escape is actually when we look back on what it was like doing in her own life and the memories that she has to confront, having an agoraphobic mom, not being allowed outside. Uh it was clear that her home carried a lot of pain. And I think as someone who was also extremely sheltered growing up, not to this extent, but that shelter can sometimes feel like a prison. That's where I think I can really relate to Mary just as a character overall, and I think why she grounds so many of the scenes that end up working for me in the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

Yeah, I'm right with you.

Binx 1:00:49

I think that she was extremely compelling because I mean, right off the bat, if you've been in therapy and you just see a therapist portrayed in media, like you can probably just like you feel a little bit more invested or at least a little bit more curious because you can't help but maybe project your own experiences within therapy, right? At least that's just how I see it. But I thought it was very interesting that he included that, knowing after the fact that his mom, Kane's mom, is a therapist. So it's a very interesting, well-informed like decision to kind of integrate that. Explains a lot of how he is like so capable of just like talking about some experiences and like using these analogies for things, maybe like again, like therapist words, that kind of stuff, right? But Mary was a character that I was so ready for her to just lose her shit on Clark because there is clearly so much like containment and suppression that she's like facing, you know, trying her best to save other people, but is alone herself and is trying to find fulfillment from doing so because she couldn't do that with her mother. And I do see how like those flashbacks are very ambiguous and you've got like they're very interpretive and stuff, but I found that to be kind of cool. I don't think I really needed the full, like written out explanation of what she's gone through. I I was able to piece enough of the puzzle pieces to see that her mom was someone that kind of created this element of her own backrooms, right? In in like actual life. And I mean, that final moment of the movie is kind of why I was like, all right, maybe the ending isn't ever what everyone's gonna love. But the way that the actress were not like portrayed this like acceptance of, you know what, I'm in the backrooms myself. Like I'm back to where I've always been. I can't help anyone, and I'm stuck and alone again because my fate is clearly, you know, not promised. I'm never gonna get out of here. So ain't it a funny thing? I found that to be so sick. Like it's twisted. But it's like a weird interpretation of it because she seems okay, almost like a funny, like, huh, look at life. It's fucking great. It's weird, it's bizarre. Maybe not the happiest ending that we would have wanted for her. We want her to like actually leave and live a happy life. But how realistic would that have been, also? You know, it's clear that this is a very gosh, what's that place in Roswell where it's like the aliens and stuff?

Kris 1:03:33

Korea 51.

Sean 1:03:34

Yeah, they don't want you to know and spread that information.

Binx 1:03:37

Exactly.

Sean 1:03:38

I agree. I think Mary is probably the strongest character. I think that we that, you know, maybe up front you feel like Clark is the one that you need to hone in on, but it definitely feels as the movie progresses that Mary is the stronger of the characters, the one that you would attach to most mostly, I would say, because the more you learn about Clark, the more you just don't invest in his character. Because I don't care that he lost his marriage because he's an asshole. I'm sorry.

Kris 1:04:08

You know, okay.

Sean 1:04:10

I have no ties, no emotional ties to Clark as a character. He did that to himself.

Kris 1:04:15

Fuck, okay. See, I get it. I get it. But also what Clark experiences is like a very real thing. Sure.

Sean 1:04:26

And we don't know probably hundreds of thousands of people go through, you know? Yep.

Kris 1:04:32

Yeah.

Sean 1:04:33

Every day.

Kris 1:04:34

Yes. But we also don't know the full scope of the story. And this is not me and my defend Clark era, but it I don't know that he should be completely fucking condemned. Like he has a relationship that sounds like it was well past due. But also, people can be in relationships that no longer serve them, that aren't good for them. And it doesn't mean that he's a bad person, it just means that he has a lot that has curdled into resentment. Yeah, he's kicked out of the house, he's sleeping in his own store, his business sucks, and it's not the work that he even wanted to do. He made a sacrifice to support someone, and he should not be holding that over his wife's head for sure. Like that's an asshole move. But the movie gradually reveals that that pain, yes, has curled into that resentment, which just makes his unraveling even more effective. What I find interesting about him is that he wants therapy, but he's not ready for accountability. So he wants the validation of his pain, but he doesn't want Mary to challenge his role in it. He just wants to start getting it out there. And that's just the beginning process, right? Like when you start in therapy, going is half of the battle, and then it's gonna take a little while before you're really open and really accessible to that. And I don't know that Clark fully deserves. Everything that happens to him. Like it fucking sucks. And Barbara didn't deserve what happened to her. She didn't deserve the marriage or his outburst. Nobody in this movie fucking deserved it.

Sean 1:06:10

It is funny that he was an architect, though.

Binx 1:06:12

I mean, again, an architect of his own mind, constantly just finding ways to weave and pass through any accountability that he'd ever have to take. And I completely agree with you, Chris. I think that people think that, okay, you're just going to therapy, I'm going to be cured instantly, but it requires you to accept that you are accountable for some of the things and the decisions that you make. And again, when we think of this overall concept of like this behavioral loop that we find ourselves in, where we just find ourselves doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result, he doesn't want to accept that. He wants the opposite, where it's he wants someone to just say, Oh, you're just wired this way. And it will instantly absolve him of any consequences or any, you know, accountability that he has to take on his own. But wouldn't life be so much easier, right? I think he just wants purpose. And I think that that's the part that finds that you can find this sense of like relatability to Clark because everybody wants to belong and they want to feel like they serve a purpose. And it seems to me like Clark has just been passing through life without living out what he thought was his purpose, which was to be an architect. The way he screams that he is an architect, even though he's just a store manager, damn, don't you feel that? Because we have so many talents. And just because our career is not that doesn't make us any less that, that talent, right? So I thought I found that to be like really like daggered to the heart and something that we can relate to, even maybe more so as adults than the 11-year-olds that are watching this friggin' movie. I don't know what they're getting out of this psychologically, but okay.

Sean 1:07:59

I mean, I get that feeling. I feel like there's like, you know, you work at some places and you got up a lot of people that end up working at a place where they went to school for something else, and they're like, I am a graphic designer. Well, you're not doing shit with it now.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

God damn, Sean, you are stone cold. That's that's a savage thing to say, but exactly that's exactly what you're saying.

Sean 1:08:20

You want something, you go out and you pursue it without whatever sacrifice you need to do to make it happen. You look at anybody that's made it in Hollywood and things like that, outside of maybe people that have been like spoon-fed because they grew up in it, but like you look at people that actually made it from nothing, they'll tell you they lived in their car, they had no money, they were basically homeless for fucking months, if not years. Musicians, artists, things like that. If you don't have what it takes to go through that and and sacrifice everything, you're more than likely going to end up in a job that you don't like and you're not gonna be happy. And that's just the fact.

Kris 1:08:56

You know, I don't know if that's an entirely fair thing to say, though, because not everybody has the ability to just say fuck everyone else's responsibility. And like, okay, I am particularly conditioned for suffering. I think we we've shared that enough on this podcast. And if I wanted to say, fuck everything that I need from like from the like responsibility to like take care of my family, sure, I could go live in a fucking car, live in a fucking forest, and go do whatever the fuck I want, right? But not everybody has that. So again, like sure, I think it's very easy for us to say you can fucking give everything up and just go make your dreams come true. But Clark fell in love. Clark made a sacrifice. Was it a sacrifice that he should have made? I don't know what was his agenda in making it, I don't know. But if you want to just like let's take the best possible scenario and put it out on the table, two people entered into a marriage, they love each other, and he was supporting her through law school, and it seemed to be taking longer, and it probably became a thing that he didn't fucking expect it to be. Or worst case scenario, he was an asshole who never should have made that fucking deal in the first place. Who knows? But nah, man, I think for what people want to be and for people want to want to do, like the fucking economy sucks. Sometimes we have to do jobs that we don't necessarily want to do, but have to do because of the obligations we have to support the people around us. That's my take, though.

Sean 1:10:30

Sure, but you have to make the choice to figure out, like, before you get to the point where you have people to take care of, what is your path? If you don't figure that out until afterwards, maybe it's too late for you. I say all that to say is I sit here and say, oh man, I would have loved to be fucking making music for a living. I would have loved to work in studios. I did that, I pursued it. I realized that I really don't want to work for free for a long time in the hopes that I'll fucking maybe make it when I'd rather just have some money now. I made that sacrifice and I know that I will never be a fucking producer. I know that I will never be a fucking rock star. I'm okay with that. But all the people that say, Oh, well, I could have been this if only, well, yeah, if only you fucking just went out and did it, then that's just what it is. So I don't have sympathy.

Binx 1:11:19

It's an interesting, it's so interesting because I think, especially from me, Sean, because you are married, because as you were saying this, I was thinking about like your dynamic with your wife, right? Because something that if we were to reimagine Clark from the very beginning and a scenario, what this could have looked like, right? I compare it a little bit to Phil. And although Phil is a character that is there for a short amount of time, for the little bit that we get of him, I find him to be almost like what you're describing, Sean, where it's like Phil could have been an actual MRI scientist and he could have been all kinds of things. And ultimately what he has decided to do, and without any resentment from what we can little see, but it seems just like a sense of contentment. He is content with living the same day over and over again. He's content with going home, going to work, going home, going to work, just sitting on the couch, doing the same thing, going a little bit to the backrooms. It's like the blandest, most normal nothingness and it is okay for Phil. For Clark, rather than just reaching that point of acceptance, which he clearly cannot do, he will always hold this level of resentment. And although, yes, I agree that you know, you can't necessarily resent something that you made conscious choices of. Ultimately, though, like, I don't think that everyone has just the ability to just chase their dreams once they've already made that commitment. At the end of the day, Clark makes a conscious decision every single day. And rather than going to his wife and sharing his concerns and like just how where he's at, wishing that maybe she participated more, maybe wishing that, you know, hey, you're pursuing your dreams of being in law school, but maybe like when is it going to be my turn to kind of like pursue mine? How can we collaborate together? He doesn't communicate at all. Instead, he just drinks. And I think that that seems to be the actual problem and the like very disappointing nature of Clark, because we can all relate to Clark. We know a lot of Clarks. We also know a couple Phil's, but I would much rather have a Phil scenario than a Clark scenario. Someone who doesn't talk to me, who just rather resent me than a Phil who is like he's made his conscious decision and he's okay with that. And then there's Mary by herself, not married to anyone, which is aka me. It's great.

Kris 1:13:45

Yeah. I mean, listen, not now. Not now. Not now. The thing about the backrooms is that it's really just the backrooms inside of all of us as very imperfect people. And there are no fucking good decisions made by anyone at any point. We're just fucking people living in the goddamn world. And I think one of the worst decisions I get made in this movie is the decision to fucking end this movie on the note that it does. Okay, because okay, sure. We get Phil who's sitting across from Mary. Well, he's really trying to get to understand like her spot in all this, confirming that she knows Clark and that this is the area that she entered from. He wants to understand more. It becomes more clear to her that she's never gonna get out of here, she's not gonna be allowed to go. And it just is like for a movie that takes you on such a bummer of a ride, it was a bummer of an ending. And not even like, oh wow, this makes me sad. Like, damn, this is what it built up to.

Binx 1:14:46

I mean, that's fair. That's fair. I don't know. I mean, I in a funny way, I would say that the worst part of this movie for me was its fan base, and everyone calm down. I'm gonna get real specific now, because the fan base that I'm talking about are the children, the youth. Because what's funny is that I did not hold enough weight to the statement my brother gave me before watching this movie, which was that his girlfriend told him that one of her clients, she's a therapist, by the way, so that was real fun watching this movie with her as well. One of her clients was 11 years old and he was the one that told her about this movie. I should have known with that piece of information that I shouldn't have seen this movie at any prime time. And two out of the three times, this is what I got. I cannot even begin to tell you. So the youth also don't understand this ending, but the youth also don't understand this movie at all because it's way above their pay grade, and I think they just wanted to see a spaghetti man running around.

Sean 1:15:55

Well, for me, I think the best part of this movie literally was the concept of this movie. I do think that conceptually the backrooms is uh a truly terrifying idea. I think the whole look of the backrooms, the thought of being stuck in the backrooms for eternity and trying to find your way out, even if there isn't a fucking entity in there, is enough to give you this sense of unease. So conceptually, I think the movie was very strong.

Kris 1:16:23

It was very strong, and I think that's exactly where I'm gonna have to leave it because the more that I've thought about this movie and the more distance I've had from it, the more I've been so fucking mad about the ending that I just think, damn, it really was just okay. And I do think it didn't live up to its potential. So I think if I pull a Binx and watch this shit more than once, I'm gonna be rehashed the slash in our 2026 Slasher Stores Awards.

Binx 1:16:49

Don't watch it again. Don't watch it again. Let me keep this moment. Please, don't watch it again. I, however, not fucking well in the brain. So I most definitely will watch this again, but not like anytime soon. I've watched this movie three times in like the span of a week and a half, I think. So that's like not actually well. I will own this movie. I will be revisiting it again. I just bought the magazine from A24. So I think I found my new obsession. I mean, obsession's always gonna be my obsession, but the other one, you know?

Sean 1:17:21

Yeah, there's no way I'm watching this movie again.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:25

Could you imagine if you had said yes?

Sean 1:17:26

There's no way. I just don't like there are times where I'm like, you know what, I'll give it another go. I don't I just don't see I just don't see a point. I'll watch more of the YouTube shorts, but I don't know about watching this one again. I'm good.

Binx 1:17:38

Funny how we feel that way about skin em rink. Isn't that something?

Sean 1:17:41

That is you know, there's something for everyone. Some some people like the uh like skin em rink, some people like the backrooms, you know?

Kris 1:17:48

But skin em rink is nothing. Okay. We're not gonna not gonna go there. There is a backrooms that is just skin em rink, but for now, there you have it, folks. The backrooms 2026 has earned one hack and two slashes.

Toodles

Kris 1:18:01

Now, we've talked about a lot here and whether this one felt like the next evolution of internet horror or a trip through one fucking hallway too many. It gave us a lot to talk about with creepypasta, analog horror, what happens when a, you know, internet YouTube series makes the jump to the big screen. And while we've had a robust discussion, it doesn't end here by any means. So we want you to head on over to the hacker slash pod subreddit and tell us what you think. Did backrooms make the leap from internet legend to feature film? Or does this kind of horror work better when it stays half explained online?

Sean 1:18:36

Yeah, we definitely want to know. Or maybe just if you would eat people in the backrooms, you know what I mean? Would you eat some of that sweet styrofoam stomach substance or whatever the hell that is? We definitely want to know these questions and get the answers. But you can also go further than this episode if you support our show by going to patreon.com slash hackerslash, where you can enjoy and explore our backrooms and even more of the show, including bonus content with early access extended episodes with our B sides, movie nominations, and live shows.

Kris 1:19:10

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember, we all have our loops.

Sean 1:19:14

You're still stuck right where you started.