Why BACKROOMS’ Visual Style Drives You Insane

[00:00] Why does the backrooms look like this?

[00:01] I've noticed every review talks about

[00:03] the same thing. It's a mood or it's the

[00:05] aesthetic. Maybe it's just the vibe.

[00:06] It's transcendent, atmospherically

[00:08] haunting, but so were all these other

[00:09] movies like The Shining, Exit 8, Escape

[00:11] Room, 1408, Asbow, So Below, and even

[00:14] Cam. The thing is, every creative and

[00:15] technical choice in the back rooms

[00:17] actually builds that feeling that made

[00:18] us call it a vibe or atmospherically

[00:20] haunting. It kept us talking about the

[00:21] movie long after we've seen it. And with

[00:23] a film like Backrooms, a project that

[00:24] began as a single image slowly growing

[00:26] into its own lore over decades, the goal

[00:28] for the movie wasn't really to define

[00:30] what this world is, but to expand on it

[00:31] without closing it off. In the director

[00:33] Kane Parson's own words, the horror of

[00:35] the back rooms isn't in the space being

[00:36] explained, it's in how much of it gets

[00:38] filled in by us. If the horror comes

[00:40] from what we project onto this space,

[00:41] then every visual decision has to

[00:43] support that feeling. That's where the

[00:45] architecture, the lighting, the

[00:46] cinematography, and sound design come

[00:47] in, which we'll get into in this video.

[00:49] There's a lot of different movies to

[00:50] check out in regards to liinal horror or

[00:52] liinal spaces. And the concept of it is

[00:54] nothing new, of course, but I find that

[00:55] most of these movies always have to

[00:57] bring a lot of existential dread and

[00:58] never fully balance between reality and

[01:00] fiction, which wasn't hard for a

[01:02] franchise like this one that found a lot

[01:03] of footing during the pandemic when in a

[01:05] way we were also trapped in our own

[01:06] spaces. So, the vibes familiar, but our

[01:08] relationship to it is already personal.

[01:10] As humans, liinal spaces naturally

[01:12] trigger anxiety. Part of that is learned

[01:13] through horror movies, but it also comes

[01:15] from our everyday lives. We read empty

[01:16] parking garages or abandoned offices as

[01:18] potentially dangerous because spaces

[01:20] without people, without rules, can be

[01:22] places that are ultimately very

[01:23] dangerous. So, we don't need a monster

[01:25] necessarily to make this movie feel

[01:26] wrong. It helps, but it really starts

[01:28] with the environments that already sit

[01:29] really close to memory. It taps into our

[01:31] fascination with the unknown while

[01:33] appealing to a younger audience. Unlike

[01:34] other creepy pasta movies like Slender

[01:36] Man, The Backgrounds draws from a very

[01:38] Gen Z anxiety. The battle against AI,

[01:40] where things that look almost right are

[01:41] completely off. And in a world

[01:43] experienced through our phones, we're

[01:44] surrounded by endless choices. is

[01:45] curated by algorithms we don't fully

[01:47] control, kind of like the back rooms. At

[01:49] the same time, it taps into a nostalgia

[01:51] for that Y2K vibe of design and

[01:53] aesthetic that younger people have

[01:54] become very fascinated by in the recent

[01:56] years, while preserving a bit of genuine

[01:58] memories for us older millennials. The

[02:00] result is a world that feels both new

[02:01] and remembered, a perfect basis for that

[02:03] kind of uncanny horror that The Back

[02:04] Rooms really thrives on. The team behind

[02:06] The Back Rooms was a full army. However,

[02:08] I do want to highlight director and

[02:10] co-composer Kane Parsons, who worked

[02:11] with the cinematographer Jeremy Cox. Cox

[02:13] previously shot Keeper and Mile and

[02:15] Kicks and also worked as second unit DP

[02:17] on Long Legs and the Monkey. He's also

[02:19] worked on the 2024 psychological horror

[02:21] series The Edge of Sleep, where

[02:22] Markiplier starred as the lead. And

[02:24] given Markiplier's jump into feature

[02:25] film making with Iron Lung, this isn't

[02:27] Jeremy's first time working with

[02:28] YouTubers, moving into fullscale

[02:30] cinematic productions. Cox has also been

[02:32] working with a Vancouver based

[02:33] production company called Oddfellows,

[02:35] the same company behind Back Rooms,

[02:36] Longlegs, The Monkey, and Keeper. Chris

[02:38] Ferguson, who has been running

[02:39] Oddfellows for over a decade, originally

[02:41] introduced him to Kane after working on

[02:42] Keeper and seeing how well they did on a

[02:44] small budget. So, they saw it as a nice

[02:46] fit. And that's when Kane showed him his

[02:47] YouTube series. And unlike most projects

[02:49] where world building is something

[02:50] developed in like pre-production, this

[02:52] world already existed. So, it wasn't

[02:53] being constructed. So, that took a lot

[02:55] of work off their plates. A lot of their

[02:57] visual inspiration came from things like

[02:59] 1 hour photo. And you can see in 1 Hour

[03:00] Photo and the blocking and how they use

[03:02] the space how that really inspired back

[03:04] rooms. but they also pulled from bigger

[03:05] references in general because this is

[03:07] already an established world, just not a

[03:09] traditional, you know, cinematic one.

[03:10] So, they spent a lot of time studying

[03:12] Reddit threads of liinal space

[03:13] photography, looking at what

[03:14] specifically made those images feel off,

[03:16] and how to recreate that sensation in

[03:17] live action. It also is important to

[03:19] remember that this is Kane's very first

[03:21] liveaction feature, and Cox has

[03:22] mentioned that Kane approached it very

[03:24] directly and happily, even while

[03:25] acknowledging that translating something

[03:27] so fully done in Blender into physical

[03:29] production came with a steep learning

[03:31] curve. Kane has always been drawn to

[03:32] film, but the shift from total digital

[03:34] control to real world constraints meant

[03:36] negotiating scale. In contrast, and to a

[03:39] traditional cinematic sense, no one on

[03:40] that team wanted the back rooms to feel

[03:42] glossy or pristine. The goal wasn't to

[03:44] create something overly cinematic, but

[03:46] to build a film that kind of resists

[03:47] those expectations while also still

[03:49] functioning as like a coherent film

[03:51] piece. So, a lot of the process became

[03:53] about figuring out a simple question.

[03:54] How do you make something that refuses

[03:56] rules still feel like a film? And how do

[03:58] you take something familiar and make it

[03:59] feel unfamiliar? And that answer

[04:01] actually starts with the architecture.

[04:03] Production designer Danny Verette and

[04:04] director Kane Parsons built more than

[04:06] 30,000 square feet of backroom sets

[04:08] across four sound stages. Even their

[04:10] crew needed signs to navigate this maze.

[04:12] Parsons had already spent years building

[04:14] these spaces digitally in Blender and

[04:15] created even more for Verette before

[04:17] building a single set. That was because

[04:19] this movie wasn't meant to give you a

[04:20] new version of the back rooms, but to

[04:22] build off his original work published

[04:23] all those years ago. So, this honors the

[04:25] fan base and expands upon it for the

[04:26] movie. But recreating the back rooms

[04:28] isn't enough. The movie still has to

[04:30] trap us in that same way that Kane's

[04:32] videos did, but for 2 hours. And it

[04:34] needs that same locked in pressure. So,

[04:35] the spaces aren't just here to look like

[04:37] the back rooms. They start supporting

[04:38] the story itself. It isn't just a maze

[04:40] where Clark wanders through. The film

[04:42] suggests that the space is constantly

[04:43] absorbing fragments of the people who

[04:45] pass through it. Their memories, their

[04:46] anxieties, their architecture. Thus, it

[04:48] becomes a world that feels familiar

[04:49] without ever being identifiable. Every

[04:51] corner, every hallway feels like it

[04:53] belongs somewhere but nowhere at the

[04:55] same time. Kane has talked about how

[04:56] liinal spaces remind us of fragments we

[04:58] barely remember. The texture of a

[04:59] wallpaper in a relative's house, the

[05:01] shape of an archway, a waiting room, a

[05:03] strip mall, a carpet pattern you've

[05:04] forgotten but somehow still recognize.

[05:06] Tiny details that aren't important

[05:07] enough to remember consciously but never

[05:09] fully disappear. And the original

[05:10] backroom's image kind of works for the

[05:12] same reason. It's not a haunted house.

[05:14] It's an ordinary space photographed

[05:15] poorly. The white balance is off. The

[05:17] colors are distorted. Nothing about it

[05:18] is intentionally designed to be scary.

[05:20] However, it's still very unsettling.

[05:22] Vertt has said that they're creating a

[05:23] world where rules don't apply. And so he

[05:25] was very careful to make sure that they

[05:27] weren't just doing things because they

[05:28] could. And the goal always was to

[05:30] establish recognition first, then it

[05:31] unravels and you start to realize then

[05:33] everything's off. And that's where The

[05:35] Back Rooms differs from something like

[05:36] The Shining. The Overlook Hotel was

[05:38] built to feel disorienting. It creates

[05:40] anxiety in a controlling and impossible

[05:41] way. While back rooms creates anxiety

[05:43] through recognition, it isn't asking you

[05:45] to enter a strange place. It's asking

[05:46] you to wonder if you've already been

[05:47] there before. So the architecture feels

[05:49] less like a location and more like a

[05:51] collection of memories. is just stitched

[05:52] together. And once the film convinces

[05:54] you that the space belongs somewhere in

[05:55] your past, it becomes much more easier

[05:57] to get lost in it. And while the

[05:58] architecture creates that anxiety, the

[06:00] camera really traps us inside of it.

[06:02] It's June. There's a lot going on from

[06:04] graduations to Father's Day and big

[06:05] summer plans. It's easy to look around

[06:07] and feel personally diminished because

[06:09] it looks like everybody else is having

[06:10] the time of their lives. And that's not

[06:11] a great feeling to sit alone with. But

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[06:25] you spend a lot of time on social media,

[06:27] it feels like there's thousands of

[06:28] people living it up in Tokyo or at a

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[06:32] through a night of stress induced

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[07:05] here with you. The camera work continues

[07:07] to behave like the architecture where it

[07:09] becomes part of the story, supporting

[07:10] the story visually and just trapping us

[07:12] at the same time. And Jeremy has spoken

[07:13] about how the back rooms forced him to

[07:15] rethink his own instincts as a DP. The

[07:17] back rooms allowed him to have framing

[07:19] deliberately offc center, slightly

[07:20] short-sighted and asymmetrical. Because

[07:22] there's so much uniformity to every

[07:24] location in the movie, you instinctively

[07:26] want to deviate from that. So, there's a

[07:27] visual imbalance as well. There's a lot

[07:29] of wide angles that make the characters

[07:31] feel and look smaller while

[07:32] simultaneously allowing their

[07:34] environment to like dominate the frame.

[07:36] So, it's a weird visual where the space

[07:38] is massive and still somehow feels

[07:40] claustrophobic at the same time. Even

[07:41] when characters are standing directly in

[07:43] front of us, the environment feels like

[07:44] the real subject of the shot, which

[07:46] feels important to the heart of the back

[07:47] rooms where exploring the space has

[07:49] always been encouraged, but you would

[07:50] never actually find answers to them. The

[07:52] camera will at times move like it's also

[07:54] another character in the movie, peeking

[07:55] around corners before our characters get

[07:56] there. It lingers on empty rooms, and we

[07:58] get to see and study the place before

[08:00] they even enter it. Cox shot the film on

[08:02] a Sony Venice using a Rialto extension

[08:04] system, which separates the sensor from

[08:05] the camera body and allows it to fit

[08:07] into incredibly tight spaces. That meant

[08:09] that the camera could move through

[08:10] impossible corners and awkward angles

[08:12] inside that maze, making you feel rooted

[08:14] in that environment. And that makes

[08:15] sense because the camera often feels

[08:17] subjective, as if we're kind of

[08:18] remembering a place rather than

[08:19] physically exploring it. And despite

[08:21] being a studio film, the movie never

[08:23] completely abandons the found footage

[08:25] that made Kane's original video so

[08:26] great. They remain wide, the camera

[08:28] remains curious, and our attention is

[08:30] constantly pulled towards the

[08:31] environment rather than the people

[08:32] inside of it. The found footage is

[08:33] arguably the best part of the YouTube

[08:35] series, and Kane keyframed all the

[08:37] movements for handheld in Blender. And

[08:38] according to Jeremy, some of the hardest

[08:40] stuff to operate was the handheld work

[08:42] because you had to act as if it was an

[08:44] accident, but also hit the key beats.

[08:45] They were shot in Red Komodo, and

[08:47] there's additionally VFX in these

[08:48] segments. And after all the VFX was

[08:50] done, they printed it onto VHS. So

[08:52] everything feels just as aesthetically

[08:53] viby as the original image in the

[08:55] YouTube series delivered. Yet,

[08:56] architecture and cinematography aren't

[08:58] alone in making the back rooms feel oh

[09:00] so wrong. You might have noticed a

[09:01] stinky putrid tone and smooth varnish

[09:03] that would put smooth Spongebob to

[09:04] shame. Across every version, from that

[09:07] single image to the YouTube series with

[09:08] Blender to the big screen, color and

[09:10] lighting have been really important in

[09:11] shaping its atmosphere across all forms

[09:13] of media. But what makes it really

[09:14] unsettling is just how profoundly flat

[09:16] it is to me. There's no contrast, no

[09:18] shadows in the traditional sense, of

[09:20] course, and it's not that cinematic

[09:21] lighting that you might be used to, but

[09:22] it's also very common in A24 movies. It

[09:25] feels designed to look not designed and

[09:27] the color grading pushes that even more

[09:29] and is perfectly just imperfect in the

[09:31] same sense. Where it's normal for movies

[09:33] to use color theory to reflect different

[09:35] atmospheric changes or maybe a character

[09:36] state of mind, backroom uses its colors

[09:38] to be more disorienting and just very

[09:40] uncomfortable. Outside in the real world

[09:42] in the movie, there's this cold or like

[09:43] blue tone over everything, which isn't,

[09:45] you know, unheard of. It's showing a bit

[09:46] of detachment from the world that we're

[09:48] about to enter. Inside this new world is

[09:49] sickly yellow and fluorescent and the

[09:51] opposite of inviting. The warm tones

[09:53] throughout the movie from the occasional

[09:54] lamps should feel comforting. Instead,

[09:56] they appear during moments of confusion

[09:58] and feel more rancid than warm. They

[10:00] went as far as to test different shades

[10:02] of yellow and photos of different skin

[10:03] tones to find the right balance. So,

[10:05] we're seeing how color wasn't even only

[10:07] an aesthetic bonus, but where they began

[10:08] fine-tuning that distortion vibe. And as

[10:11] most fans know, watching the original

[10:12] work, Kane really succeeded in building

[10:14] a great sound design around his videos.

[10:16] On top of creating music for the

[10:18] original short films, Kane had also been

[10:19] expanding the soundsscapes for back

[10:21] rooms into a standalone albums that

[10:23] weren't shared in the series, but still

[10:24] allowed fans to pull more information

[10:26] from. The score helps you identify the

[10:28] area and works like a compass in a way.

[10:30] It doesn't only support emotionally like

[10:31] most scores do. It helps guide you. It

[10:33] reorients you in a way where the music

[10:35] isn't just here on top of the picture,

[10:37] it's helping you see it. Kane

[10:38] co-composed with Ido Venman, who also

[10:40] composed the score for Keeper, which he

[10:42] worked on with Back Room's DP, Jeremy

[10:43] Cox. Arguably, this movie sounds more

[10:46] like just regular sound design than a

[10:48] score. It's at all times responding to

[10:50] what's happening or how people are

[10:52] reacting. It was less about creating a

[10:54] thematic score and just maintaining a

[10:56] consistent like sonic environment that's

[10:58] very fluid and behaves in its own way.

[11:00] And that blur between sound design and

[11:02] score is really interesting in this

[11:03] movie because it's full of like

[11:05] atmospheric audio cues and it feels so

[11:07] constant. You don't know whether it's

[11:08] playing to us or just living in the

[11:10] movie. And there's no clear separation

[11:12] of what is real and what is not.

[11:13] Essentially, we stop tracking what is

[11:15] music versus what is the environment

[11:17] because both are operating under the

[11:19] same kind of logic. So, when you look at

[11:20] all of this together, the architecture,

[11:22] the cinematography, the lighting, the

[11:23] sound, it starts feeling like a system.

[11:25] It takes so many moving pieces to

[11:27] control and support any film. But

[11:28] technically, there's so many reasons for

[11:30] the back rooms being different from

[11:31] traditional movies of its like caliber.

[11:33] Nothing in the back rooms is designed to

[11:34] fully disorient you immediately. It

[11:36] starts with familiarity. Spaces that

[11:38] feel almost real, frames that feel

[11:39] almost balanced, lighting that feels

[11:41] almost natural, and then piece by piece,

[11:42] that familiarity slips. And that's what

[11:44] makes it work. Because the film isn't

[11:46] asking us to understand the back rooms.

[11:47] It's asking us to move through it the

[11:49] same way the characters do. Constantly

[11:50] searching for something that confirms

[11:52] where we are without actually ever

[11:53] getting there. So, when you ask, why

[11:55] does the Back Rooms movie look like

[11:56] this? The short answer is it's designed

[11:58] to be disorienting, but in a way that's

[11:59] built on familiarity. and that comes

[12:01] from a series of very specific technical

[12:03] and sometimes psychological choices that

[12:04] create unease and discomfort and

[12:06] ambiguity. Together, they preserve the

[12:08] original feeling of discovering the back

[12:09] rooms online for the first time while

[12:11] also expanding it into a world you can

[12:13] actually explore and get lost in.

[12:14] Comment down below with your thoughts on

[12:15] the movie and how you felt about the

[12:16] vibe because I know it's very alluring

[12:18] and I know it's very cool. And a special

[12:20] thanks to one of our YouTube members,

[12:21] Paulo Bianca, who supports us at the

[12:23] executive producer level. A big thanks

[12:25] to Studio Tech Brian Kim behind the

[12:26] cameras. New Rockstars editors Joshua

[12:28] Steven Herd and Abby Fel and all the

[12:30] other supporting editors for their work

[12:31] on this video and all of our videos.

[12:32] Follow me at Lulu Clement. Subscribe to

[12:34] all the channels in the New Rockstars

[12:35] Network for breakdowns and news coverage

[12:36] of everything you love. Thanks for

[12:37] watching. I'll see you guys later.