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The Backrooms – Stuck in the Liminal Space of Mediocrity

I stepped into The Backrooms—no pun intended—completely unsure of the architectural layout of this adaptation. Would it stubbornly cling to the sprawling internet lore, or was this going to be a heavy-handed, ground-up reimagining? As the credits rolled, I realized it was entirely neither. I sat there in the dark, watching the fluorescent lights flicker on screen, processing a film that stubbornly refused to pick a lane.

Image by Reddit

Lost Without a Map (or Lore)

The plot is almost non-existent. But let's be honest, that is par for the course here. You buy a ticket to see what is wandering the humming, yellow-carpeted hallways, not why the hallways were built in the first place. That said, leaving the origins entirely blank is a glaring weakness. If you don't walk in with prior knowledge of the series or the creepy pasta, you are left completely in the dark. I am no expert in the lore myself, but even I could readily see that the rules presented here were fairly different from the source material.

Image by Bloody Disgusting

A Tale of Two Performances

The human element is split right down the middle. Renate Reinsve's performance is strikingly lacking. She comes across as dull, flat, and entirely uninterested in the bizarre reality shifting around her. On the flip side, Chiwetel Ejiofor is excellent, as usual. My god, the man knows how to anchor a scene. He shifts effortlessly between portraying a remarkably stable man and someone completely shattered and insane.

Image by CBR

Trauma and Timidity

Then there is the monster design, which completely misses the mark. I don't know exactly what I had in my head, but it absolutely wasn't what we got on screen. The filmmakers clearly leaned into the creature as a manifestation and a metaphor for trauma—yadda, yadda, yadda. I try to view movies with the eyes of a "normal" person as much as I can. While I can recognize the high-minded creative choices being made in the director's chair, those kinds of academic metaphors rarely matter to a general audience. That disconnect is once again proved right here. The film is weird, strange, and a little f'd up, just as a movie about this setting should be, but it is also inexplicably timid, limited, and narrow.

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Expectations vs. Reality

As good as the film manages to be in stretches, I walked out of the lobby just expecting... well, more. Yes, it was weird, but the premise demanded weirder. Yes, there was blood, but a setting this hostile required more. Yes, there were tiny tidbits of lore, but I definitely expected more. It is a tough one to properly review because it pulls its punches just when it should be swinging wildly.

Image by Reddit

Final Score: 6.5 out of 10

I liked it enough that I will likely queue it up to watch again on a lazy Sunday, but I don't know if I can rightly say the experience was worth the theatrical price of admission.

Pros:

  • ✅ Chiwetel Ejiofor's gripping portrayal of both a stable and an insane man.

  • ✅ Captures some of the weird, strange, and f'd up vibe of the source material.

Cons:

  • ❌ Renate Reinsve delivers a dull, flat, and uninterested performance.

  • ❌ A nearly non-existent plot that abandons the lore and alienates newcomers.

  • ❌ Weak, overly-metaphorical monster design that feels timid rather than terrifying.

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