Took my sons this afternoon. I liked it. Reminded me of a cross between Meow Wolf and Blair Witch. I took the movie to be allegory for collective memory and trauma (which seems very Gen Z-y).

We had those seats that move with every camera shake and thump and thud. That was fun.

Saw it last night. It was meh. The starting two-thirds, Alright, let's see where it goes. The last third, I don't think so. They could have gone somewhere if the MRI and the "government" may have been involved.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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The hardest part was seeing Mark Duplass and waiting for Ruxin and Dr. Andre Nowzick to show up, to no avail.

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I see what you did there.

TCTTS said:

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Probably one of the creepiest movies I've ever seen.

Suuuper unsettling, ominous, and surreal. So much atmospheric dread

The whole backrooms world just draws you in completely. To that end, the production design is absolutely incredible. I've never seen anything like it. The movie's worth watching for that element alone. Just to experience that world on a big screen is really, really unique and cool.

That said… it's a pretty unconventional script (and not in a good way), I thought the big villain reveal kind of sucked, I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, and there's no way I ever watch it again.

I saw someone compare an aspect of it to Lost, and *that's* the part I wish it focused on more. Because the main two characters just aren't all that compelling. They're not bad, but not great either.

All of that said, it's still worth seeing for sure, just don't expect a classic, or it to live up to the hype of the insane numbers it's currently doing at the box office. It's more of a concept in search of a plot. An incredibly interesting plot at times, just not one that fully delivers in the end, IMO.

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It's pretty obvious that Kane is a talented director. And his actors were doing great with what they have. Still proud of this kid to have the backing of a major studio and to get the quality of the cast he did. But listening to the Filmcast review and they brought up a good point

This film basically skipped act 2 and went straight to act 3. The script wasn't great but damn did I have fun with watching it

CharleyKerfeld said:

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My more critically thinking kid said the stuff in the Backrooms reminded her of bad Generative AI. Even what Clark says is that it's making copies that are just a little off. My daughter had gone to some art exhibition where you could type stuff onto a screen and it fill up this huge video wall of AI. She had it do some dogs, but they warped almost immediately into dogs with 2 heads and she said it creeped her out and thought the people in the BR were similar.

Can we assume the redheaded weirdo in Clark's dining room was a copy of his wife?

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I definitely went down the AI reiterative history route once we saw the mannequins

Also we did see a photo of the ex and she was a red head but more ginger

There is a blink and you miss it Easter egg that I believe said Reverchon Industry or something like that. Kanes follow up to Backrooms was called the Oldest View. In it a man finds a tunnel in a forest and finds himself in a recreation of the now demolished Valley View Mall in Dallas. Kane rebuilt it from videos and pictures in blender.

In it the place is haunted by a massive doll called the Rolling Giant based on French Botanist Julien Reverchon who lived in Dallas and the puppet was on display in the mall

I legitimately thought he filmed all that in an abandoned mall because it is that good.

CharleyKerfeld said:

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The hardest part was seeing Mark Duplass and waiting for Ruxin and Dr. Andre Nowzick to show up, to no avail.

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Could this movie use a well-timed Rafi Bomb?