I suspect someone has already used this metaphor—the backroads of my mind (maybe a country-western ballad!)—yet writer Will Soodick and writer/director Kane Parsons, from his series, have crafted a psychological horror film that everyone can identify with: the notion that our minds have endless rooms harboring trivia to deeply enervating childhood memories. The title, Backrooms, is apt.
Protagonist Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has experienced, in the best Twilight Zone tradition, moving seamlessly through a wall of his furniture store, into an endless arena of backrooms filled with everything from cheesy chairs to childhood toys. As he describes this phenomenon to his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), it’s easy to see he needs to unload these memories as well as come to terms with his divorce, which he must take credit for as the analogy plays out or rather as Mary has him confess.
You guessed it—I’m intrigued by the numerous allegorical possibilities, and the absence of traditional horror tropes like gore and jump scares. After all, it’s in the rooms of our minds where scares reside and robust psychological movies like Backrooms take hold. If you’re not convinced, try actress Reinsve for a lasting memory of intelligence and beauty.
Director: Kane Parsons
Screenplay: Will Soodik, Parsons (based on a series by)
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave), Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World)
Length: 1h 50m
Rating: R
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio.Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com