TSJ Reviews Backrooms
Below find my review of Backrooms along with the trailer. The film is now available to rent.
The Backrooms Backstory
Kane Parsons started his directing career by creating and uploading content to YouTube. His short film, The Backrooms, about a teen who falls into a seemingly endless maze of corridors, now has 95 million views. Parsons was only sixteen when he uploaded it. It soon attracted James Wan’s attention (of Saw fame), and eventually Parsons became the youngest director in A24’s history, at twenty years old. The movie version of that viral video came out this past Summer, and it’s now available to rent. I watched it on Apple TV for $6.99 CAD.
The video and the movie are in the relatively new sub-genre called “Liminal Horror.” A Google search for the definition will tell you:
“Liminal horror is a subgenre that uses empty, transitional spaces like empty hallways, vacant malls, or quiet pools to create a deep sense of dread and unease.”
Some recent examples include:
Backrooms (YouTube video and movie), Exit 8 (video game and movie), Severance (TV), The Shining (movie).
These examples, including the Backrooms movie, are more creepy than anything else. The film’s trailer was highly compelling, and it drove me to write the original article here at Life After Gateway. The walls in this genre are typically pale yellow, white, or pale red or sky blue. Here is an example of the maze of office corridors in Backrooms:
In the film, it is an enormous and seemingly never-ending maze also stretching downward. Corridors branch off at angles up or down, and sometimes from higher up in the wall. The maze is more of a 3D spiderweb than anything else. There are doors, ladders, pools, windows, and even replicas of houses and towns. It’s enormous.
TSJ’S Review of Backrooms — Beware Mild Spoilers
From IMDB:
After a therapist’s patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.
- Studio: A24
- Director: Kane Parsons
- Writers: Will Soodik, Kane Parsons
- Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Martian, 12 Years a Slave), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), Lukita Maxwell (Shrinking), Mark Duplass (The Long Long Night)
- Budget: <$10 millions USD
- Box Office: $394,122,453 USD Worldwide
- IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
- TSJ’s Rating: 8/10
Needless to say, looking at those budget vs. box office numbers above, this was a massive hit. This and Obsession were low budget, social media-driven hits that dwarfed the juggernaut Disney offering at the same time, Mandalorian & Grogu. The social media/viral frenzy around Backrooms obviously served as grassroots marketing, and the film exploded as a result. But is it as good as the numbers suggest?
Kane Parsons in the backrooms
Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a recently-separated man who owns and operates a furniture store. There are never any customers, he’s lost his house and his wife, and he’s struggling to market his business and earn an income. He has a therapist to help him through this difficult time, which has clearly had a negative impact on his mental health. He has two employees, Bobby and Kat, who help him create low-budget advertisements. Clarke lives in the lower level of the store, sleeping on a couch at night, and due to some electrical issues in the building, he notices a crack, or an opening, into a maze of corridors just behind the wall. It’s very much an urban fantasy in this regard, in which characters can enter or leave this realm at will — as long as they can find the doorway. Within the maze, it’s easy to get lost, especially while being chased by odd cardboard-cutout figures, barely-seen monsters, and a collection of other creepy characters.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is wonderful as a man on the ragged edge, trying to make sense of it all
One day, Clark confides in his therapist, who doesn’t exactly believe him. But when he disappears and doesn’t show to his next session, therapist Mary goes to search for him, finds the doorway, and also gets lost in the maze.
It’s a great setup. The maze is creepy. The sounds, visuals, public-address announcements, and chase scenes are gripping. The first two acts are wonderful. However, the film slips a bit after this, because:
- Clark becomes mildly unlikeable
- Nothing is really explained
- There are numerous plot threads created, but left unresolved
This being said, I did find the movie compelling. I wish there had been a bit more answered, but I can wait for the sequel. At a certain point in the movie, Mary becomes the protagonist while searching the maze for Clark, and the two never really gel as two people searching for meaning in the maze and attempting to escape. However, the tension skyrockets as Mary realizes the horror that she herself has stumbled into, and the full gravity of the situation takes hold. There are terrifying creatures within this realm, and not your typical beasts-with-fangs-and-claws type. These are oddly twisted human-like figures with distorted limbs, faces, and expressions, but they all mean harm to anyone in the backrooms.
“Don’t get lost in the maze” is the mantra of survival in the backrooms, but once you start running, finding that door back to reality — and sanity — grows more and more difficult. The maze itself is a metaphor for Clark’s own mental health issues, and navigating these in difficult times is something people sometimes need help with, and a therapist should be the perfect hero to explain the situation and solve the mystery ….
… unless the backrooms are also a metaphor for her own childhood trauma and mental health. The dilemma is something left for audiences to debate and question.
Give this one a shot. It’s a gripping setup and I really enjoyed the mystery of it all. The creepy liminal horror maze-craze surrounds everything and everybody in this film, and for that reason, it’s an entertaining watch. There’s a lot of depth here. Kudos to first-time director Kane Parsons; I’m looking forward to his future films, and not just the next edition in the Backrooms franchise. Is Kane Parsons the next M. Night Shyamalan? Time will tell, but I’m betting the answer is yes.
TSJ’S Rating: 8/10
Here’s the film’s trailer. You can currently rent Backrooms on Apple TV or Prime.
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A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston and from Fitzhenry & Whiteside, LTD. is the recipient of the 2024 GLOBAL Thriller Award GRAND PRIZE and the 2024 CYGNUS Award First in Category.
— Timothy S. Johnston, 24 September 2026
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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel
“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop
“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite
“A Blanket of Steel is not simply a ‘daring do’ thriller … It’s prescient.” — Amazing Stories
“A priority selection. An action-packed story that is hard to put down. A Blanket of Steel is outstanding.” — D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest
“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels
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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!
WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.
Book Cover & Jacket Copy:
AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!
A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …
Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.
Taunting him.
Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.
If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.
But the assassin could be anyone …
Watch your back, Mac.
A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:
The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007
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TSJ’s Awards
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THE WAR BENEATH: FIRST PLACE 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER Action / Adventure Category Winner, 2019 Silver Falchion Award Finalist, 2018 CLUE Award Semi-Finalist, 2019 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist, & 2019 CYGNUS Award Shortlister
THE SAVAGE DEEPS: FIRST PLACE 2020 CYGNUS Award Winner, 2019 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards Finalist, 2022 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist; 2019 CLUE Award Shortlister
FATAL DEPTH: FIRST PLACE 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Award Winner, 2022 Silver Falchion Award Finalist (Best Action Adventure), 2021 CYGNUS Award Semi-Finalist
