{"id":2611353,"date":"2026-06-06T06:47:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-do-we-feel-beckoned-by-backrooms\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T06:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:51:28","slug":"why-do-we-feel-beckoned-by-backrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-do-we-feel-beckoned-by-backrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do we feel beckoned by Backrooms?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-do-we-feel-beckoned-by-backrooms%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2611353&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A24\u2019s *Backrooms*, based on the internet myth of maze-like, seemingly unused spaces near <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/public-buildings-reform-board-seeks-to-revamp-nearly-vacant-d-c-federal-buildings-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Public ... Reform Board seeks to revamp nearly vacant D.C. federal ... - Washington Examiner\">retail areas<\/a>, is presented as a horror film driven by grief: longing for what\u2019s disappearing-especially decaying strip malls, cheap furniture stores, adn the buildings that once held personal meaning. Director Kane Parsons expands the story\u2019s emotional range beyond fear, using the collapse of Mary\u2019s childhood home and Clark\u2019s own stagnant life to frame the backrooms as more than a scare set-up.<\/p>\n<p>In the film, Clark owns a tacky furniture business and discovers that something sinister lies beneath it. His curiosity leads him in and soon draws others-including mary-into the backrooms through a hidden, porous basement space. The experience is initially terrifying: illogical corridors, unsettling arrangements of everyday objects, and rooms that seem to warp physical reality. As the plot develops, the film moves through increasingly gruesome set pieces, including a grimly comic chase and a cannibalism-related moment, while also introducing a far-fetched subplot about a powerful medical-equipment company trying to control or manage the backrooms.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the reviewer argues that the strongest idea isn\u2019t the grand conspiracy elements, but the quieter truth underneath: people get pulled into the backrooms as they\u2019re fascinated by the hidden \u201carchaeology\u201d of ordinary commercial landscapes-like dead-mall spaces that can feel strangely comforting in the right light.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/3198053\/not-a-horror-freak\/\">horror movie<\/a> derived from a concept as singularly contemporary as an <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/internet\/\">internet myth<\/a>, A24\u2019s <em>Backrooms<\/em> is grounded in a mourning for lost things that could only be called <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/conservatives\/\">conservative<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like its foundational web-based myth \u2014 which, as far as I can tell from my position as one relatively estranged from internet subcultures, refers to the existence of a bewilderingly complex series of seemingly unused rooms adjacent to retail establishments \u2014 <em>Backrooms<\/em> summons fears of hidden places where few legitimate exits present themselves. Scary stuff, no?<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4597308\/natasha-owens-drops-tds-song-music-video\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Natasha Owens drops \u2018TDS\u2019 song and music video: \u2018You tested positive\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/4596337\/trump-announces-new-performers-of-greatest-rally-ever-on-june-24-rally-to-end-all-rallies\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Trump announces new performers of \u2018greatest rally ever\u2019 on June 24: \u2018Rally to end all rallies\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4594814\/pelley-updating-linkedin-hoping-begging-joe-concha\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>\u2018Scott Pelley is updating his LinkedIn, hoping and begging\u2019: Joe Concha<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To his credit, though, director Kane Parsons \u2014 elaborating on his own <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/youtube\/\">YouTube<\/a> series of the same title \u2014 has enlarged his film\u2019s emotional palette. He means not just to induce fright but to encourage lament: for the early 1990s, when the new <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/movies\/\">movie<\/a> is set; for decaying strip malls and dying furniture stores, to which the backrooms here are affixed; and for the passing away of all structures, however cheap or shoddy, that hold meaning for us.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chiwetel Ejiofor in \u201cBackrooms.\u201d (A24 Studios)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the latter category is the childhood home of Mary (Renate Reinsve), a psychiatrist who confidently expounds her therapeutic <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/philosophy\/\">philosophy<\/a> in her sessions with clients and on late-night TV commercials promoting her self-help audio cassette tapes. That Mary herself, enveloped in her generously proportioned sofa and sitting before a literal <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tv\/\">TV<\/a> tray with an actual TV dinner on top of it, watches one of her own commercials is a sign that her emotional wellness may be in doubt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So is the moment early in the film when Mary mournfully looks on as her long-ago home faces demolition to make room for a big, featureless residential complex. From the rubble, she retains a chunk of the sidewalk, in which, when the pavement was wet an eternity ago, she once placed her hands. The film\u2019s sense of the emotional impact of buildings coming down is as palpable as it is in Louis Malle\u2019s great film about the declining Boardwalk, <em>Atlantic City<\/em> (1980).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among Mary\u2019s clients is Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), whose life is a litany of dissatisfactions: He is aggrieved at his ex-wife for her professional ambitions, and he is resentful of his lot as the unsuccessful proprietor of a spectacularly tacky <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/better-than-expected-u-s-economy-added-638000-jobs-in-october-unemployment-dropped-to-6-9\/\" title=\"Better Than Expected: U.S. Economy Added 638,000 Jobs in October, Unemployment Dropped to 6.9%\">furniture store<\/a> called Cap\u2019n Clark\u2019s Ottoman Empire, since he once fancied himself as an architect. Ejiofor, best known for Stephen Frears\u2019s <em>Dirty Pretty Things<\/em> (2002) and Steve McQueen\u2019s <em>12 Years a Slave<\/em> (2013), has his most memorable role in eons as Clark, who plausibly careens between hope, rage, and curiosity. Equally believable is director Parsons\u2019s evocation of \u201990s-era furnishings, including elephantine sectionals, massive recliners, and cheaply produced desks, shelves, and such. The sight in the furniture store of rolled-up rugs propped in a corner is a nightmare in and of itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Curiosity is what leads Clark to first poke around the basement of his store. Dismayed by an ever-increasing pile of past-due bills, Clark surmises that his high electric charges emanate from unexplained power spikes on the lower level. In fact, the breaker panel has been tinkered with in an unprofessional manner, but the real problem is that a veritable undiscovered country exists beneath Cap\u2019n Clark\u2019s Ottoman Empire: the backrooms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Clark first traverses the backrooms, accessible through a solid-looking but actually porous portion of a basement wall, the film is at its most alarming. The backrooms are disturbing in their particulars \u2014 with stacks of furniture arranged ominously (like the \u201csymmetrical book stacking\u201d in <em>Ghostbusters<\/em>?), corridors lit inconsistently, and spaces that defy logic and even geometry, such as a room that narrows to a tiny door with multiple knobs. Anyone watching the film for the first time will gasp each time Clark enters the backrooms for fear he will never plot a course back out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Early on, though, Clark not only freely enters and exits the backrooms but rather recklessly invites guests, including his recalcitrant videographers Bobby (Finn Bennett) and Kat (Lukita Maxwell) \u2014 they\u2019re the ones responsible for his store\u2019s over-the-top TV ads. In the immediate aftermath of discovering what seems to be either a construction error or an alternate dimension, Clark admits the existence of the backrooms to Mary, who is, naturally, disbelieving. (Fleetingly, one wonders why Clark does not inform his landlord, the police, or any available Men in Black.) Nonetheless, after Clark has seemingly gone off the grid, Mary cannot suppress her own curiosity and she, too, makes the trek to Cap\u2019n Clark\u2019s and, inevitably, the backrooms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/4584405\/sally-field-remarkably-bright-creatures-review\/\">SALLY FIELD, YOU DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There follows a series of terrifying set pieces, which grow ever more gruesome as the movie unfolds. Pick your poison: Are you more scared by a scene involving cannibalism or a larger-than-life incarnation of the pirate mascot of Cap\u2019n Clark\u2019s giving chase to Mary through a hopelessly complex maze? In an attempt to tether these strange goings-on to something like reality, the film introduces a subplot involving an <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >implausibly powerful medical equipment company<\/a> that has discovered the backrooms and apparently has the mandate to oversee them. In these scenes, the movie starts to resemble a \u201970s conspiracy thriller like Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s <em>The Conversation<\/em> (1974) or Alan J. Pakula\u2019s <em>The Parallax View<\/em> (1974), though without the real-world resonance (or classiness) of those great movies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, these last-act twists are not as powerful as the quiet truth beneath the movie: The reason why the backrooms pull in Clark and later Mary is not because our protagonists have a death wish but because they are fascinated by the archeology behind even the most quotidian commercial landscapes in America. Ask any \u201cdead malls\u201d YouTuber: In a certain light, those empty rooms, hallways, and storefronts are homey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Peter Tonguette is the Life &#038; Arts editor of the <\/em>Washington Examiner <em>magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A24\u2019s *Backrooms* mourns disappearing, conservative spaces from an internet myth\u2019s lost-rooms horror<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2691,"featured_media":2611354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LA.Film_.061026.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[80928,32300,4865,80929,28873],"class_list":["post-2611353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-backrooms","tag-curiosity","tag-horror","tag-liminal-spaces","tag-psychology"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LA.Film_.061026.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2691"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2611353"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2611357,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2611353\/revisions\/2611357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2611354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2611353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2611353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2611353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}