Horror movies! One on the big screen!
Jun. 10th, 2026 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lucymonsterBackrooms (2026): I loved this!!! Admittedly, my reception has been coloured by the sheer delight of getting to go see it in theatre; I was able to book the perfect seat in an otherwise empty row, I treated myself to a big cup of mixed lollies in a fit of childlike exuberance, and all in all a great time was had while my husband generously managed the kids' bedtime alone. Under those circumstances the movie would have had to be very bad indeed before it would have dented my joy, but I do think it was genuinely good - especially for something made by a twenty-year-old youtuber.
Based on an internet creepypasta that I'd never heard of in my life but that is apparently hugely popular with Gen Z, Backrooms is about a struggling furniture store owner who passes through a wall in the back of his shop and finds himself in a liminal space of huge, labyrinthine office rooms that are just Not Quite Right: the architecture is all off-kilter, everything is faded yellow, and the space is completely empty aside from the scattering of random items in unlikely places throughout. His therapist gets roped into it as well, and two of his young employees. The ambience and sound design are key to the horror: not a lot of action happens, but the visual wrongness never lets up, and the awful noises made by the Mysterious Thing that stalks the backrooms had me clutching the armrests. If I get a second chance at an evening out then I am going to spend it on Obsession, but a part of me kind of wishes I could go back and see this one on the big screen again.
As Above, So Below (2014): My trip to see Backrooms was a second attempt at an evening out; the first one fell over, and As Above, So Below was my streamable-at-home consolation prize, plucked from a "You're obsessed with Backrooms, now what's next?" listicle. I can see their point, but the tone could hardly be more different and for me this one scratched a completely different itch. It's about a rogue archaeologist and her thrown-together team of urban explorers who blunder into a haunted hell dimension while searching the Paris catacombs for the Philosopher's Stone. It is ridiculous, corny, historically incompetent, and overall spooky as fuck. Someone clearly said, "Imagine if Indiana Jones was a beautiful twentysomething woman! And imagine if her tomb runs were even scarier and more deadly! No, don't worry about the plot, we're going for Vibes here, it doesn't have to withstand even three seconds of scrutiny! Also, I can get us approval to film in the actual real catacombs!" And then they took that as a mission statement and committed to it with their whole heart and soul. It was so dumb. I had such a good time.
The one misstep that I did actually take issue with was the choice to frame it as found footage. I get the vision, I do! But the script and the acting and the overall story are just way too campy to pass as subject matter for low-lit handcams. Absolutely no one is mistaking these people as real. They are actors reading lines. They are so, so obviously actors reading lines. They are having earnest dialogue about Nicholas fucking Flamel! The found footage conceit kept breaking my ability to immerse myself in the camp, and the camp kept breaking my ability to immerse myself in the found footage, and I think ultimately it would have been a much stronger movie if they'd just scrapped the handcams and accepted that nothing about the project was going to lend itself to realism. It should have been shot like the 80s-action/adventure-inspired brain candy it was.
Based on an internet creepypasta that I'd never heard of in my life but that is apparently hugely popular with Gen Z, Backrooms is about a struggling furniture store owner who passes through a wall in the back of his shop and finds himself in a liminal space of huge, labyrinthine office rooms that are just Not Quite Right: the architecture is all off-kilter, everything is faded yellow, and the space is completely empty aside from the scattering of random items in unlikely places throughout. His therapist gets roped into it as well, and two of his young employees. The ambience and sound design are key to the horror: not a lot of action happens, but the visual wrongness never lets up, and the awful noises made by the Mysterious Thing that stalks the backrooms had me clutching the armrests. If I get a second chance at an evening out then I am going to spend it on Obsession, but a part of me kind of wishes I could go back and see this one on the big screen again.
As Above, So Below (2014): My trip to see Backrooms was a second attempt at an evening out; the first one fell over, and As Above, So Below was my streamable-at-home consolation prize, plucked from a "You're obsessed with Backrooms, now what's next?" listicle. I can see their point, but the tone could hardly be more different and for me this one scratched a completely different itch. It's about a rogue archaeologist and her thrown-together team of urban explorers who blunder into a haunted hell dimension while searching the Paris catacombs for the Philosopher's Stone. It is ridiculous, corny, historically incompetent, and overall spooky as fuck. Someone clearly said, "Imagine if Indiana Jones was a beautiful twentysomething woman! And imagine if her tomb runs were even scarier and more deadly! No, don't worry about the plot, we're going for Vibes here, it doesn't have to withstand even three seconds of scrutiny! Also, I can get us approval to film in the actual real catacombs!" And then they took that as a mission statement and committed to it with their whole heart and soul. It was so dumb. I had such a good time.
The one misstep that I did actually take issue with was the choice to frame it as found footage. I get the vision, I do! But the script and the acting and the overall story are just way too campy to pass as subject matter for low-lit handcams. Absolutely no one is mistaking these people as real. They are actors reading lines. They are so, so obviously actors reading lines. They are having earnest dialogue about Nicholas fucking Flamel! The found footage conceit kept breaking my ability to immerse myself in the camp, and the camp kept breaking my ability to immerse myself in the found footage, and I think ultimately it would have been a much stronger movie if they'd just scrapped the handcams and accepted that nothing about the project was going to lend itself to realism. It should have been shot like the 80s-action/adventure-inspired brain candy it was.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-10 03:53 am (UTC)I recall almost giving up on As Above So Below right away becaus of the shaky cam. I usually am game for found footage, but for whatever reason I recall that being especially shaky. I don't remember much else about it besides that until the very end when they crawl down into the hole in the ground and find themselves crawling UP through the sidewalk. I loved that, it was my favorite part of the movie. And the part most like Backrooms, maybe?
I was trying to think of other comps for Backrooms for someone else and having a hard time. If you're into the impossible spaces part, you might like Cube? It's an extremely low budget Canadian film, honestly very stupid, lol, but it does have Rodney from SGA, so there's that. 😂
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Date: 2026-06-10 05:25 am (UTC)As Above, So Below was definitely on the shakier end of the shaky cam spectrum, and I suspect that - and maybe even the decision to do found footage in the first place - is down to the filming constraints imposed by using the actual catacombs as a set. Apparently they had the actors lighting whole scenes with nothing but headlamps, as well as doing the lion’s share of the actual filming themselves. Getting around down there was physically laborious and there was no electricity, signal, or room to bring in much equipment or crew, so - yeah, it was genuinely just a small group of non-videographers blundering around with camcorders in the dark while trying to focus on their acting and not break anything historic. Knowing that doesn’t make the end product any easier on the eyes but it DOES give me a whole new respect for the cast, lol.
I’ll keep an eye out for Cube! Nowhere is streaming it in Australia and I’m not sure I’m hungry enough for more Backrooms-esque movies to pay for it, but it’s going on the maybe-someday list.
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Date: 2026-06-10 05:34 am (UTC)I didn't know any of the behind the scenes of As Above So Below. That's incredible, honestly more interesting to me than the movie, lol. I can't remember, did you review Fall recently? That's another one where the behind the scenes stuff was a lot more interesting to me than the movie.
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Date: 2026-06-10 05:39 am (UTC)