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.
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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:
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- The story has a great explanation for everything and it either works or it doesn’t work, or
- 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+
About The Peetimes: Read a synopsis of first 3 minutes of this movie.
There are no extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Backrooms.
| Rated: | (R) Some Violent Content | Language | Bloody Images |
| Genres: | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi |
| USA release date: | 2026-05-27 |
| Movie length: | |
| Starring: | |
| Director: | Kane Parsons |
| Writer(s): | Will Soodik |
| Language: | en |
| Country: | US |
Plot
A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.
Creator and developer of the RunPee app. When something doesn’t work right in the app it’s pretty much his fault. 🙂
Aspiring author. Would like to finish his “Zombie Revelations” trilogy if he could break away for working on RunPee and the cottage he’s building for RunPee Mom.
Agreed! I thought the movie started out really well and was going to a found footage story but then it took a turn, more like a tumble, and just continued to disappoint. I look at movies, tv, books, etc and ask, what would have helped it or what would I have done if I had written it. I would have had Clark build his little scooby gang, with the Psychiatrist, and then go in and just explore. My ending would have had them meeting the team on the other side and then comparing notes. But that’s just me.
I think I like your ending better. 🙂
This is not a Stephen King movie, but rather the idea started on YouTube (or actually 4Chan initially) back in 2018 when supposedly an image of an empty yellow room was posted and people were asked to post disturbing images, which started a thread and eventually became a YouTube series. You mentioned Stephen King several times in a way as to imply you thought this was a Stephen King movie or an idea engendered by him, so I thought I’d mention it is not his story. Yeah it *seems* like something from Stephen King mind, but is not.
Thanks, I know it’s not Stephen King. Sorry I gave that impression. I didn’t know about the original motivation for the story. That’s interesting. I wish we knew more about the motivation/seed behind more stories.
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