The Backrooms (Found Footage)

After seeing the feature-length film trailer, learning about House Of Leaves, and not being able to get any of this out of my head, I binged the entire Kane Pixels Backrooms YouTube playlist. With all the lore and context, I re-watched the original Found Footage with a much greater appreciation and understanding for this world.

For one, this initial debut so perfectly captures the liminal set-piece, the found footage POV horror, the 90s analog aesthetic, the incredible sound design – all of it. You leave with more questions than answers as you learn the rules of this unknowable space, until you don’t. It’s the best character of all, as you learn more and less all at once.

While I agree with Kane that the real horror is the unknown, I’ll say that showing The Lifeform for a few frames twice before the big reveal is the best kind of horror, the one right at front of you haven't yet or can’t acknowledge. Reminds me of Hereditary in all its subtle horror glory.

While subsequent Backrooms episodes (Pitfalls, Found Footage 2-3) innovate on even more wayward and perfect liminal set-pieces, this is a great sampler into the world. With the series added world-building delving into government conspiracy, biomedical horror, and inter-dimensional warping, the sky is nowhere to be found and the limit may not exist, but that’s why we’re here.