What’s it about?

Clark is at a low. He runs a furniture store he hates, after putting his architecture career on hold to support his wife (who kicked him out of his house). To make things worse, he walks through a wall in the store’s basement which leads to a seemingly infinite series of uncanny hallways and spaces.

What’d we think?

Backrooms is an intelligent and riveting psychological thriller, blending David Lynch and Kafka with internet urban legends to create something fresh while innately tapping into the familiar.

Confidently directed by Kane Parsons in his feature debut, the film is as much of a character study as it is a horror piece. Incredibly strong performances from the two leads ensure that we stay invested in the proceedings, with Ejiofor and Reinsve absolutely knocking it out of the park playing different flavours of unsettled – Chewie with the “I know this sounds crazy, but I’m not crazy” kind of crazy, and Renate doing lots with very little. Not to imply that the script is a weakness, far from it. It might be sparse, but so much of its effectiveness isn’t reliant on dialogue.

In trying to describe the backrooms, a character says “imagine describing a dog to someone who has never seen a dog, and then asking them to draw it”. I can’t think of a better way to explain the appeal of this film, and won’t try. Go and see it at your earliest convenience, just try not to be unsettled when you walk into an empty carpark after the cinema.