Even if you’re relatively uninitiated to the new horror release, Backrooms, which is set to make an astonishing amount of money this weekend, you have probably at least heard that the genesis of the film is a series of YouTube videos. Those were made by Kane Parsons, who is now 20 and one of the youngest directors ever to make a film earning this much.
There are arguments for knowing nothing about Backrooms going in. That may make the weirdness even more pronounced, though you may think you’re missing something by not being familiar with the original work. While I do think it is not necessary to watch the series before the movie, if you do want to, there’s no real downside. And if you want to focus on the core of the experience, there are some specific videos, out of the 22 in total, that you may want to check out rather than just a random assortment or trying to get through literally all of them. Or, you’ve already seen the movie and you want more of this world, so you can watch these after the fact, your call.
There are a few lists of these, but in terms of the core structure and lore of Backrooms, we have:
1) The Backrooms (Found Footage) – The Original (80 million views now)
2) First Contact
3) Missing Persons
4) Pitfalls
5) Presentation
6) Found Footage #2
7) Damage Control
8) Found Footage #3
As you can see, these range from two minutes to a whopping 45 minutes. The Found Footage ones are the most widely viewed and interesting/scary. Some of the others will give you a deeper look at the lore surrounding the Backrooms and what exactly it is (though do not expect any firm answers, kind of a hallmark of the series).
If you do watch these, you’ll certainly be able to point at the screen and go “aha!” pretty often, but there are some pretty significant changes/additions for the film, especially in terms of how the monsters are handled/revealed. It will be interesting to see the difference from the original to the final film, certainly. And of course, none of these feature any Oscar-nominated actors.
With the blockbuster success of Backrooms in theaters, a sequel is no doubt coming, likely for the same low budget (the first one was $5 million) and getting deeper into at least some of the concepts we see here. So if you do want to get ahead of the game, and acquire Backrooms knowledge most average viewers may not have, there’s a good starter list. You can, of course, watch the full list of 22 videos if you want. Enjoy.
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