Back to the Backrooms!

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One truly gorgeous summer day earlier this month, Ben and I decided to opt in to a maze of corporatish empty rooms, also known as a movie theater.

To see a movie on a topic, some of you threadheads may remember, Backroom. Backrooms is this kind of horror, creepy pasta or meme about a video game glitch where you can slip, or as it's called, no clip, into a video game prison of empty rooms. This all started on 4chan, which then moved to Reddit and YouTube and Then, endless thread.

Yeah, we did an episode on the Backroom subreddit back in 2020. And a time jump skip and a hop later, there's a major motion picture coming out on this topic.

It's directed by a young guy named Kane Parsons, who actually did a YouTube series based on the subreddit and the 4chan creepypasta before making this film.

So we headed over to the movie theater just off the Boston Common downtown. But there was a gaggle of noisy but joyful children who had no respect for our ambitions to record a little movie pre-game conversation.

So we ducked into a quiet, fancy residential building with a very nice doorman that just so happened to have a little nook set up with a lamp, a table, and two chairs. Омослак і вас прос.

Well, well, well

If it isn't my old backrooms friend. We're kind of in a back room right now. Is that weird?

This is not what I would call a back room, but I do feel like we happened we lucked into something.

We can't. It's kind of the opposite of the backroom situation. Instead of no clipping into a place we can't escape, we were trying to escape something and we no clipped into a a beautiful oasis of air conditioned quiet.

Silence, yes. We were on the Boston Common. It's just like the most gorgeous day. It's a crime that we're about to go spend two hours plus inside.

Hot day matinee. That's me. Would I like a hot day matinee?

Yes. Set us up. Set us up. What are we doing here?

Five years ago, in the midst of COVID, you and I sat down to record a endless dread snack time.

Thank you.

Um

For people who don't know the term snack time, that's just when we like tell each other stories. It's a s it's a snackier style episode as opposed to our full meal deep dive episodes.

That's right. And we Uh we're throwing stories at each other and I brought you the backrooms subreddit. What would how would you describe the backroom subreddit?

Picture like yellowish, beigeish. walls, endless hallways and fluorescent lighting and just the buzz of the fluorescent lights. And what makes it so creepy is like the endlessness of the labyrinth, but also the absence of anything Else, seemingly. Like, are there people behind the walls? Everywhere you turn, it's just more endless hallways.

There might be a creature in the water.

Yeah.

To me it's like a fascinating sort of horror concept.

Kane Parsons.

Kane Parsons he was is supposedly, you know, in all the press where they sort of talk about this like young director, um, who was making uh YouTube horror series. um and is like maybe one of the youngest major motion picture directors of recent memory to to release a wide release film. Um he was sixteen years old when he got his start quote. And that was like basically the exact time that you and I were talking about this.

Oh my.

Isn't that crazy? To think about.

God, did we make this happen? Did we make the back rooms make?

We should find out if she's picture. She might be an endless thread listener.

If there was an endless thread to A twenty four film pipeline, I'd be so down.

Same. Same.

The biggest A twenty four box office debut.

But he also talked about this kind of modern feeling of unfettered uh urbanization, industrialization, and information overload. that people have no connection to. Uh we we should test the theory as we go in to watch it. Part of the sort of horror aspect of this movie is kind of like a what hath we wrought. of this kind of again sort of like feeling that we just don't have enough humans and humanity and soul to inhabit. these like empty spaces and these buildings that we've constructed.

And also, w to me, what's exciting about it is that Kane Parsons is the director of this film, but he didn't write the script. And so the fact that there was acknowledgement from, you know, someone in the industry to say, hey, here's this thing that went from 4chan to a subreddit. to now to YouTube to

Yeah, me too. Um hopefully we don't get too scared.

Yeah. We'll talk to you guys on the other side. If we make it out.

Which we probably won't.

See this is bad this is I mean this is too colorful to be backroomsy but yeah a hallway no people lots of doors Sounds like it's still previews. Okay, I need you guys to get me please. Standard Oh yeah.

I don't like that.

Thank you.

down the camera. He was using to film everything. Something picked it up. Something picked up again.

Phew we made it.

I'm Dean Russell, co-creator of WBUR's new family-friendly podcast, The Midnight Rebellion. This story transports you to a future-shaped By climate change. The water is high, seaweed is everywhere, and the city is ruled by salty robots. The good news, you choose what happens. The decisions you make can turn the tide. All episodes are out now. This summer, find your next great adventure at WBUR.org slash midnight or wherever you get your podcast.

Okay, we are now back outside the theater on the Boston Common, where we find three women who were just at the same screening of the Backrooms movie with us. Two friends, Min and Olivia, who just decided to catch a movie on a summery Friday morning, and a woman named Indigo, who went by herself. We started with Indigo.

Okay, so what what made you come see this movie today?

Um I came because um I was really into the web series beforehand. Um I love analogue horror. I love that type of thing. And it started off as an analog horror. That's why like you see in the movie, it's kind of like it has that same thing where it's kind of like a found footage type thing.

Analog horror, just meaning there's no like Like a CGI monsters or

No, analog horror basically is kind of like Telling like a horror story through like VHSs and and and you know, old cameras and things like that, you know, analog media.

Okay.

Fair enough.

What?

What made you to come see it?

I mean for me, um Olivia was like this morning she was like, Hey like do you wanna watch this movie? And I was like, Oh yeah, sure,'cause like I had nothing else to do and I like horror movies.

Yeah, I didn't think it would be this terrifying actually. I thought it would be more like psychological thriller but it's there's a lot of John scares in there. Yeah. I think yeah, I'm also drawn to the like the concept of like liminal space kinda. So I was really interested. But yeah, I think we were just bored. So

Were you familiar with the concept of backrooms before this?

No, not at all.

No, you'd heard nothing about it.

No.

Whereas Indigo here, you knew a lot about background.

Nice.

Okay. What what do you think Olivia and Min what do you think makes it feel so Scary.

Um I think like the fact that like it's like all open space and then like you don't know when something's gonna come out of like nowhere. Yeah.

Yeah, same same. I think like the horrors that you cannot see but could only hear and feel are the the worst ever.

Yeah, how do you interpret the ending of the movie?

It it feels like whatever's in the mind of, you know, somebody that uh has I don't know, something happened to them or something like that, or just memories in general, um, it can become so warped within other somebody else's mind.

Any other theories about what the movie means or if there is like not that every movie needs a lesson or a takeaway, but do you think that there's like a deeper meaning or something that you will take away as you go about doing whatever you're gonna do on this beautiful day?

For sure not. I don't want to take any of that with me, seriously.

Shut up!

I wanna leave that in there. It it's nothing it has got nothing to do with me.

I think my main kind of takeaway though is kind of like you can you can let something that is a flaw within you fester up until it literally eats you alive.

Well, Indigo Min Olivia, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us. Would you recommend the movie?

I was.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Alright, you heard it here.

Three empty rooms out of five empty rooms. That's my overview. Just kidding.

Really?

No, I I thought it was good. I enjoyed it. Mm-hmm. I thought it was good tension. good tension buildup um throughout the movie. Didn't care too much about the characters. Didn't feel like deeply other than the psychiatrist.

Yeah.

Um But also shh her story didn't get super developed. It was sort of like impressionistic.

No, I feel like both of the main characters so there's Clark who is in this case like the patient. He owns the furniture store. He's the patient of Mary, the therapist. And neither of their characters feel that developed. Which is why in trying to come up with a theory about what do the backrooms mean? What do they represent for each of them? How do they end up there? Uh it's hard tricky. Yeah.

But it's sort of like not a deeply character driven storyline, right? When you i or or like when you think about the lore that it came from, it's like an idea. Not a story. Right. And so there's something interesting about trying to build a like a r pretty substantial movie around that.

Mm-hmm. And I'd heard that they like there's a thirty thousand square foot stage or you know, set that they built. So that it would be an actual labyrinth that they were going through.

Oh and so they weren't like it's not all C G I it's like

It's not all. I they use some they use some CGI, I think, but it's there it is like a thirty thousand square foot actual labyrinth that they that the the cast and crew claim to have gotten lost in themselves. While working on it.

Uh I was thinking about some of the themes. Like I think they really explored the callestrophobia of wide open space. In an interesting way. You know?

He just said callestrophobia instead of claustrophobia. Sounds like.

Calastrophobia bag.

Like when you're afraid of your of your um colostomy situation. I am also callostophobic. I'm also claustrophobic.

But like I feel like that, you know, exploring the claustrophobia of wide open space is interesting.

Well there's yeah, there's like physical claustrophobia in th that they have to like wriggle their way through tight spaces, but the irony of that is that it's nothing but wide open space.

It's like being lost in the desert.

Yeah.

And also I I thought a theme that I was thinking about was in and maybe this is what comes up for me and it's not relevant, but like

Uh

It reminded me a lot of this idea because so much of it is like it's based in the nineties, right? And like there's this like huge nostalgia thing that's happening right now. And so much of that nostalgia is basically based around yearning for a time before the internet effectively or when the internet was brand new and you were still in much more in the real world much more than the internet.

It does well what I'm the sense that I am making of it is that oftentimes on the internet you start in one place, you end up in a totally different place through a series of like you know, figurative turns. And then you're like, wait, how did I get here? How do I get back out? How do I

How did I get here and how do I get out? of this internet route. Yes, yes.

One thing that I'm I'm gathering from um just the little bit of Reddit feedback that I've I've seen people in the backroom subreddit so far. A very good point that was made is that at least our understanding of backrooms is that you're not supposed to be able to get out. You're in, it's a labyrinth. You can't find your way out. But this idea of someone like tying a rope to you and being able to pull you out.

Feels.

um like not true to the nightmare that is backroom.

Yeah, that's that's a good point. And I feel like it's also it's also this like challenge that you have with a movie like this, which again it's sort of like most horror movies that I've seen and with at least one person getting out. So I think it sort of makes sense in a way that some people have to escape.

Okay, well What do you take away from this experience?

I'm gonna go back to the thing that Kane Parsons like talked about, or Kane Pixels if you follow him on YouTube, which is this like There's an aspect of horror that we all feel from uh this sort of endless. Construction. of humanity and the fact that we are in a world where a lot of the things that we are making ultimately are not you know, th they're they are uninhabited. Um and there's something very soulless about that. And so to me there's

You know, mental illness is a is a theme throughout the movie and the characters um at least the two main characters have some connection to either personal spirit experience or connection to mental illness.

And therapy too, right? Like and do you feel like therapy is treated How do you think the movie views therapy?

I don't know how it views it, but it's definitely um the idea of like a path for your life.

New path.

A new path. Yes, opening a window and a new path I was thinking, oh, these are people who want to escape their actual life. And that's what pulls them to the back room is this idea that there's something better on the other side of that.

Mm. A false hope.

Yeah. I don't know what to I don't know what to make of it, but it's it's certainly It's very depressing to see those walls.

Yes.

An hour and forty five minutes.

Those yellow walls, no good.

You definitely feel so maybe that's maybe this is my takeaway is like you just feel so much better being outside that everything about like Uh just like piles of stuff and walls and fluorescent lights. Stepping outside was the The takeaway is just get out.

Get out.

Get out here.

Get out your get out of the trash heap. Into the and onto the ground. Touch grass, as they say. Yeah.

Yeah, and maybe there's some hope in being able to actually leave the back room in this scenario because it's like it's not too late. It's not too late to get out of that room, get out of whatever like whatever it is that you feel stuck in, it's not too late to get out of it.

I like that.

This is my that's the takeaway I've chose.

Listen.

Yeah.

Yeah, all right. That's good.

Great.

I'll take it.

Great, and it's all because of uh some creepy pasta on the internet however long ago that people ran with.

Thank God for creepy pasta on the internet.

I don't know about that, but yes, sure.

Endless Threat is a production of WBUR in Boston. This episode was produced by Kalyani Sixena and me, Amory Seaverton.

And me Ben Brock Johnson. It was edited by Dave Shaw, mixed and sound designed by our production manager, Paul Vikus.

The rest of our team is Dean Russell, Emily Jenkowski, Grace Tatter, and managing producer Summit to Joshi.

Joshi, Joshi, Joshi. Endless Threat is a show about the blurred lines between an actual backroom and just your grandma's dingy wallpaper.

Go grandma. If you have an untold history, an unsolved mystery, or some other wild story from the internet, a backroom, if you will, hit us up, endless thread at WBUR.org.