The Backrooms: when the terror is in the details (and in the textured plaster)
The upcoming A24 film, inspired by Kane Parsons' viral shorts, promises to turn empty offices into architectural nightmares. With Chiwetel Ejiofor and Cristin Milioti lost in infinite hallways, the project elevates liminal spaces to the category of pure terror. 🚪 What began as a creepypasta is now a masterclass in how to make a drop ceiling and fluorescent hum terrifying.
The Backrooms proves you don't need monsters when you have a good interior designer... who hates humanity.
The art of making the boring interesting
The production team faces a unique challenge:
- Turn generic offices into nightmare settings
- Texture every last detail of worn textured plaster
- Lighting that flickers with psychological precision
It's like someone took the worst day of your life at the office and turned it into an immersive experience... from which you can't escape. 💼
Visual effects that play with your mind
The VFX in The Backrooms are as subtle as they are effective:
- Modular hallways that repeat into infinity
- Fluorescent lights that hum with malice
- PBR textures that smell like old carpet
Instead of CGI creatures, the real monster here is the architecture. And probably the air conditioning that never works properly. ❄️
Found footage for the digital era
Kane Parsons maintains the found footage style that made the original shorts famous:
- Visual grain that hurts the eyes
- Focuses that defy any expensive optics
- Ambient sound that makes you look back
It's a lesson in how to create atmosphere with a limited budget and a lot of creativity. The cinematic equivalent of making an impressive render with a mid-range GPU.
So get ready for The Backrooms, where the biggest scare isn't what you see, but what your mind imagines in those endless seconds between one light flicker and the next. 😉 And remember: the next time you enter an empty office, look closely... just in case noclip mode activates on its own.