Movie Review - Backrooms

It isn’t often that I do the Peetimes for a horror movie. That’s usually RunPee Sis’s job, but she’s got her own horror story to deal with right now — strep throat. :(

As luck would have it, I actually wanted to see this movie. From the previews, it looked a lot like a Stephen King-type story that I could get into. And for better and worse, it was very much a Stephen King-type story.

7:42●●● 95%

RunPee · now 🔔

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Stephen King (good parts)

The atmosphere and mystery were extremely well done. I got chills many times as Clark and others wandered around the backrooms.  The pacing worked well. There were long scenes where the tension increased with every second until it felt like it couldn't get any more tense, even though almost nothing happened, until it did.

Stephen King (bad parts)

Let's face it, not every Stephen King story is great. (I'm looking at you IT.) Or at the very least, the ending doesn't always feel like it holds up its end of the bargain. That is the feeling I get with Backrooms. The story creates a great atmosphere and tension. There's that point about two-thirds of the way through a movie that I step out of the story and think to myself, I wonder how they're going to wrap this up and make it satisfying? In this case, I'm not sure they wrapped it up at all, and it wasn't at all satisfying. In stories like this you can do one of two things:

1. The story has a great explanation for everything and it either works or it doesn't work, or
2. Why things are the way they are remains a complete mystery, because that's not the point of the story.

I feel like this movie tried to go down the middle path, which never works. There is an explanation that isn't fully fleshed out, and it explains nothing, and in the process, it diminishes the character interactions.

Acting

The one thing that wasn't a disappointment at all is the acting by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. Both were fantastic and interacted well in their scenes. Chiwetel in particular embodies his character perfectly. I look forward to any movie he's in.

Grade: C+

Plot
A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.