Commentary: ‘Backrooms’ Is An Extended YouTube Video
by Frank Martin
YouTube and the other online communities are becoming fertile ground for storytelling ideas. Backrooms is a prime example of short YouTube videos becoming a full-length feature. The film contains all the hallmarks that made the online series so popular. However, short videos are not movies. It requires an entirely different set of skills to craft a long-form film that can withstand the required length, and although this particular feature creates enough plot developments to reach that point, they don’t cohesively come together to craft a full story.
The movie initially follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a furniture salesman deeply unhappy with his life. In his showroom, he uncovers a strange portal into an area of never-ending rooms and decides to never leave this space. Concerned for her patient, Clark’s therapist, Dr. Kline (Renate Reinsve), follows him into the backrooms, where he renders her unconscious. Holding her captive, he attempts to explain what he believes the backrooms to be: fragments of memories from the outside world, of both people and places. A pirate monster resembling Clark confronts them and kills Clark before going after Dr. Kline. She manages to escape with the help of a mysterious organization called the Async Research that is trying to understand more about the backrooms.
Films need stories. YouTube shorts don’t. They often run off of vibes and concepts, which is exactly what Backrooms is. The movie exemplifies this very well. It gives off a great sense of dread through liminal spaces. But in order to sustain a full film, it needs to have weight and meaning behind the story. It tries to accomplish this by having Clark and Dr. Kline face some psychological trauma that is replicated in the backrooms. Nonetheless, it never fully communicates their story arcs or the purpose of the backrooms to a great degree. Both aspects are barely touched upon in two separate scenes, which leaves the entire film feeling hollow. The movie does a great job stretching the YouTube concept into a movie, but it could have used a lot more work to give that movie the meaning that a story needs.
Backrooms is now streaming on HBO Max.