Obsessing Over the Backrooms: A New Wave of Horror

Light Spoiler-y review

Obsessing Over the Backrooms: A new wave of Horror

By Richard Tanner

It’s been a while since I’ve written an actual review; ya know, actually take the time out and think it through. So please stay with me while I awkwardly try to shake the cobwebs off with an ambitious double billed review of Obsessions and Backrooms.

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I’m a middle aged man, I’m not really sure when that happened yet here we are, but I have a confession to make! I’m an avid Youtube viewer. I gave up all my other streaming services in favor of Youtube Premium. Let me tell, ad-free Youtube is fantastic! I haven’t regretted this choice once.

It all started because of a bespectacled, pink haired fellow who screamed at monsters in horror games. Markiplier was one of the first people I started following on the platform. It wasn’t just because he was playing something I was curious about, it was him and his humor and the way he made content (a four letter word that is actually seven letters, odd). He played games I was too scared to play, but lets be honest, I was too scared to play any horror games. I can watch it, I can read it… but the full emersion of a game will leave me paralyzed in fear at the start menu. Markiplier led me into the breach once more for my online life. It’s no surprise that he was also led the current streaming invasion of Hollywood at the box office.

Mark Fischbach’s first feature film, Iron Lung, brought in 51 million on a 3 million dollar budget and stole the number 1 spot, briefly, from veteran powerhouse Sam Rami. Look, I love Rami, I still see him as the indie guy that made Evil Dead with his friends at a beat up cabin in the woods, but I think even Sam is smiling at the one, two punch of a guy who plays video games for a living. Mark used his own money for this film and got it to show nation wide, he primed the pump.

My love of Youtube grew to include weekly/daily shows like Good Mythical Morning and Binging with Babish and Try Guys. I’d be a total heel if I didn’t give a shout out for Tasting History with Max Miller and Nerdy Nummies with Rosanna Pansino (for a horror guy, I really do like the cooking shows). Needless to say, if you come into my home 9 out of 10 times I’ll be streaming my “silly” little internet shows.

It doesn’t just stop there though, I also fell down the rabbit hole of vertical short form horror reels… oh, haven’t we all? There are some solid skits out there; some solid jokes, some heavy horror.

And Goblins and Ghouls, that very long winded intro brings us to our main course of the evening, Curry Barker and Kane Parsons.

Barker is known more for his comedic skits that usually take on a darker tone. From what happens when you don’t text your friends that you made it home safe to being a translator for a first date. Barker knows how to construct a viral video. Somehow, this translated into an amazing feature film. His ability to lean into absurdity with a perfectly straight tone is the selling point for his film, Obsession.

Obsession is the story of Bear, a man who makes a wish on a novelty toy for his crush to love him more that anyone else in the world. Of course, consequences ensue. The love is tainted and psychotic. It will remind every single one of us of at least one ex from our past. But you see, the villain of this story isn’t the crazy girl or even the mysterious Wish Willow and the magic behind it, but rather the “nice guy, Bear.” Instead of putting in the work on communication or on being more confident in himself, he thinks the problem is that the girl of his dreams should change to be able to see him as the right choice. Nice guys finish last, am I right?

This is where I’ve come to adore this film. It takes a simplified and overused theme and just runs with it. Obsession completely rethinks the Monkey Paw story and turns the Manic Pixie Dream girl trope on its head. The film decides to evaluate this dude who has never seen himself as he really is. He isn’t evil, per say, but he has pretty much been wrong about everything in his life. I mean come on; homeboy is so absorbed in himself that he didn’t realize two his best friends had been hooking up for years or that another friend was just as obsessed for him. Even if you take away the horror spin the character study would be riveting.

One of my friends asked if this was just a thinly guised man-hater movie and that made me stop and think. Was this film just aiming for low hanging fruit and jumping on trending rage bait and virtue clicks? Barker is a master of the algorithm after all. But I was able to firmly say no. Obsession didn’t do something that simple. This wasn’t Black and White or Good vs. Evil, this was man vs. self. Obsession is about the misdiagnosis of the ego and how one can deem themselves the victim while in reality they are the aggressor.

Gen Z is finding their voice.

I don’t focus too much on a generational divide but I do love to see new eras rise. Barker is only 25 years old and made a movie for under a million and that has brought in over 200 million worldwide. Horror has always been good at turning a dime. Eduardo Sanchez did it with Blair Witch in 99; Tobe Hooper did it with Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 74. But each of those did change the filming landscape… and Barker isn’t alone.

Kane Parson’s astonished me with his first Backrooms video in 2022. I was a big fan of Slenderman back in the day (Marble Hornets, TribeTwelve and EveryManHybrid) and I always try to keep up with the next trend in the horror world. Analog and liminal horror really took a hold of me. Backrooms just happened to be the focal point for all of it.

Parson’s was able to capture the foreboding nature of the internet’s most popular creepy pasta. He helped to shape the story but also grew as it took on a life of its own. The story was simple, “If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum, and approximately 600 million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.” This coupled with an innocuous picture of an office space has sparked one hell of a mythology.

Parson’s first feature films put out by A24 blends his original videos found footage vibes with a more traditional narrative style. The story follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a failed architect and down on his luck furniture sales man. He’s divorced, in therapy and living in his furniture store while he tries to make end’s meet. One night, while the lights flicker, Clark finds a secret portal in the basement of his shop and inside is the Backrooms, an endless echo of life from the outside. Memories that are half remembered and entities that are anything but benign. As Clark starts to explore the endless labyrinth, he becomes more and more obsessed until he drags those around him into his madness.

Unlike Obsession, Backrooms leans into the absurd and the uncanny, making sure to show you that you aren’t in Kansas anymore. While some things may seem familiar, you are very aware that it is foreign. The sound design changes, the color changes and you feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end because something isn’t right. You can’t nail it down but you feel that this movie is unsafe.

The Backrooms are tainted memories and weaponized nostalgia, its no wonder this movie was set in the 90’s. Ejiofor’s character spends the entire movie longing for his past when the future was ahead of him and looses his mind while searching for the exact moment when everything went wrong. The backrooms exploited that and used him until he had nothing left to give; creating copies of copies of the man that no one would miss.

It’s hard for me to talk about this movie because there are so many layers and people can only listen to me drone on for so long. It’s cosmic horror that I’ve always wanted to see on the big screen. Its cerebral horror with a very severe physicality mixed in. It has fan service for those that have been there since the beginning but also has the confidence of Tarantino fresh off a coke binge on the back lot of Miramax… and all of this from a twenty year old kid.

I’m not trying to insult Parson’s by calling him a kid. I am middle aged, anyone under 35 is a kid to me anymore but I’m so impressed. He started his work with the Youtube series when he was 16 and has made something that is all I’ve ever wanted to make. He made my magnum opus and has made me a follower of his for life.

I may come back and write a more spoiler heavy review of Backrooms at some point because there are so many theories and so much lore to explore and hell, the movie has already been greenlit for a sequel. A sequel that for once, I desperately want! Backrooms may very well become my Obsession… if it hasn’t already.

Parson’s made Backrooms for 10 million. It may sound like a lot but in a world of 300 million dollar blockbusters, this is a modest budget. So far it has made 215 million worldwide. Yes my friends, horror never dies and right now it is truly alive!

These films may very well be ushering in the next evolution of entertainment. The stagnant void made by the Hollywood system of existing IP’s, sequels and remakes has left the consumer longing for more. Even the dying theaters have seen a surge of customers coming in via word of mouth for the past few weeks. I saw Obsession at a sold out afternoon show on a Tuesday. I haven’t seen that in a theater since pre-Covid.

Of course, you can’t have a couple films save the entire motion picture industry but maybe… just maybe it’ll open eyes to the thriving horror community. Maybe it’ll remind people of when VHS rental stores ruled the strip malls and cheesy scary movies made for pocket change would earn fortunes.

Terrifier is one of the most popular franchises right now; Art the Clown is just as recognizable as Ghost Face. Joe Bob Briggs is able to break the internet with any new Drive-In special and the only physical media that continues to thrive is… you guessed it horror! It is a good time to be a horror fan.

I honestly can’t wait to see what the next generations of filmmakers have in store for us. As the kids say, let them cook!

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