Anonymous #2 10w

I dont think you understand what media literacy is. This movie has a thin plot. Characters generally dont make decisions that reveal their characters. There's a fleshed out setting (the backrooms)and theme (true natures, is perception reality?), but there's nothing in the writing that is interesting outside of that.

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Anonymous OP 10w

hahahahahahahaha

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Anonymous OP 10w

imagine thinking a movie’s setting + theme dont count as part of the writing. the entire point of the narrative structure here is atmospheric and psychological, not plot mechanical. forcing a character to make big, active “character defining choices” in an infinite, indifferent liminal maze defeats the entire thematic purpose of human helplessness and trying to understand oneself. reducing all cinematic writing to just “plot and choices” is exactly the lack of media literacy I was talking about

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Anonymous OP 10w

god humanity really has no hope does it

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Anonymous #2 10w

I literally never said the setting and theme arent writing??? I said those are the only two good things about the writing. How about we start READING and COMPREHENDING next time before we speak...

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Anonymous #2 10w

SPOILERS: The narrative structure doesnt fully commit to being either atmospheric and psychological, or plot mechanical. If it's meant to be psycological, why does it completely skip Clark's decent into madness? Why does the therapist's story end without her interacting with her trauma mentally or physically in the backrooms? There's a distinct lack of an Act III, which makes the movie feel unfinished, not open ended.

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Anonymous OP 10w

saying “the writing is bad, except for the massive, central themes and the entire environmental framework” is just hysterical. if the setting and the existential themes are incredible and drive the whole movie, then the writing is doing exactly what it's supposed to do for an experiential film. you can’t call the writing terrible while admitting the two biggest pillars of the script are well fleshed out

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Anonymous OP 10w

i could see this being a communication issue, but the poor communication kinda falls on your syntax and wording was just poor

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Anonymous OP 10w

i just think you don't understand experiential movies. you’re complaining about a missing act III and a lack of character trauma payoffs because you're expecting a traditional, paint by numbers narrative. experiential horror doesn't care about satisfying script checklists. it's about sitting in an unresolved, oppressive atmosphere. the fact that it feels unfinished to you means the movie achieved exactly what it set out to do.

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Anonymous OP 10w

it’s fine to not be a fan of it, but it feels like you lack understanding due to lack of exposure to different kinds of media, and just want movies to hold your hand

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Anonymous #2 10w

My perspective: Good: Setting+Theme; Bad: Plot+Character Development+Pacing+Conclusion/Arc. Movie fails to commit to being psych/atmo or plot/mech, therefore I will judge all writing aspects. Your perspective: Good: Setting+Theme. Movie is psych/atmo therefore the plot is not essential to writing.

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Anonymous OP 10w

completely strawmanning my point. you continue to display your lack of media literacy. you just don’t understand the writing choices AT ALL. the minimalist, unconventional plot is a choice and a very fitting one. your stance is essentially just not liking unconventional story telling because it doesn’t fit into a checklist you created

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Anonymous #2 10w

If you compare the Backrooms to an actual experimental liminal movie like Skinamarink, it really exposes how Backrooms is not intended to be some experimental thing. I think Backrooms is best compared to I Saw the TV Glow, which is an good representation of an experimental psych/atmo movie that develops theme and is a god example of ending on a note of unresolved trauma without the movie being unresolved.

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Anonymous OP 10w

To say there’s no character development is wild to me because that’s virtually the whole movie. It’s literally a deep dive into two characters’ psychologies. If you really think there was no plot or conclusion I just don’t know what to tell you. There’s a logical beginning, middle, and end to Clark’s descent into madness and isolation, as well as Mary’s journey following him into it. Not every movie has a huge final battle with characters aura farming and the bad guy exploding in the end.

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Anonymous #1 10w

thank you. i need to stop arguing with doo doo brains

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Anonymous OP 10w

Also, throughout this whole thread you haven’t brought up a single scene or story beat or anything that you specifically didn’t like. You just say “bad writing bad writing” but you can’t articulate why you think that.

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Anonymous OP 10w

+ backrooms really isn’t comparable to anything. there’s just nothing like it (to my knowledge). it’s nothing like i saw the tv glow. it’s like trying to describe a dog to someone who’s never seen one before

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Anonymous #1 10w

Literally how. There's very little character interaction and dialogue, and there's no plot mechanisms to "show dont tell". Again, comparing Backrooms to its 5⭐️ peers like Skinamarink and I Saw the TV Glow, it really exposes that this movie is missing something.

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Anonymous #1 10w

I specifically didn't like the dinner scene because I felt that Clark was too unhinged. I thought we missed a very large chunk of time where he goes from obsessed and scared to unhinged and best friends with the monsters...We understand WHY Clark's loneliness and unwillingness to take accountability causes him to become crazy, but we dont understand the HOW. It's just like he magically decides "I guess i like it here." It literally feels like we skipped a few scenes.

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Anonymous OP 10w

I mean that’s literally just wrong. I’m curious as to how you interpret the movie as a whole. What is this movie about? What do Clark and Mary have in common? How are they different? What message did you take away from it? I’d like to hear your thoughts on those points specifically.

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Anonymous OP 10w

I mean, it’s not clear how much time had passed, and maybe time works differently in the backrooms. I don’t think we really needed to see what exactly drove him crazy because it’s the logical conclusion to his character based on everything we saw before. He is a classic example of a person who can’t be helped because he doesn’t want to be helped. He seeks validation for his past actions rather than plans to change the future

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Anonymous OP 10w

you are actually doing what the movie is reflecting on: trying to logically explain something that is just irrational. you are asking for spelled out answers to something that is told in a abstract, borderline spiritual manner

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Anonymous #1 10w

I'll take a stab at it. The Backrooms is a physical manifestation of its inhabitants memories, except it refracts and distorts those memories. Therefore Clark experiences the Backrooms as an escape from reality and as a place where he can avoid confronting his real life and feelings, and the Backrooms physically represent that by "misremembering" reality. Mary's trauma is that she feels trapped: physically "behind the glass/window (motif)" during her childhood & emotionally to her abusive mom.

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Anonymous OP 10w

Mary wants to "break the glass" (escape the trauma (represented by the backrooms)) but a copy of her is still left trapped in the windowless Backrooms, representing how she will emotionally always feel trapped. (In my opinion that's where the movie fails to explore how she never truly escapes. So, what?). Clark wants to avoid breaking the glass and confronting his trauma.

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Anonymous OP 10w

Like I said, while the movie this thematically strong, the movie fails to build a strong story around theme. If the point you're trying to make has no payoff, is it a point worth making?

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Anonymous OP 10w

This movie is not supposed to be the end of the backrooms. Kane is planning to do either a limited series or a second movie to fully finish his story of the backrooms

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Anonymous OP 9w

So, after having some time to process the film, here’s my interpretation. Clark and Mary are connected because they’re both people who are stuck in the past, but for different reasons. Specifically, they both believe one specific moment in their lives is solely responsible for all of their problems. Let’s first look at Clark. Clark lives in the past because he’s trying to avoid accountability. (to be continued)

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Anonymous #1 9w

He keeps replaying that argument with his wife over and over again trying to find some reason why he was right and she was wrong, and generally blames her for his entire life situation. This is why everything in the backrooms for him is connected to his dead end job at his failing store. The more he resents his wife, the more he feels angry and bitter and alone in his job, the more the backrooms manifests. All of these emotions and his refusal to move forward literally creates a monster.

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Anonymous #1 9w

And this is also why the store is recreated in such detail while other rooms are mostly empty. Now let’s look at Mary. She’s actually sort of the opposite of Clark. While Clark takes no accountability for his situation, Mary blames herself entirely. She blames herself for her mother’s mental health decline, for her childhood home getting demolished, all of it. Which is why at the end of the movie, this is the memory that’s recreated in the most detail.

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Anonymous #1 9w

So the whole movie is a classic “opposites attract” story. Mary runs head first into helping people because she believes she failed in helping her mother, which leads her to Clark. She tries so hard with him. She’s patient, empathetic, does everything that a psychologist should. But the tragedy of the whole thing is that Clark isn’t even playing the same game as her. He doesn’t want help, he wants validation. And we see this in the plot, she literally runs into a death trap to save a man

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Anonymous #1 9w

she barely knows. And why does Clark keep going to the backrooms in the first place? Because it’s literally a representation of his psychology. It’s literally memories. And what are memories? The past. And what do memories do? They fade away, they get distorted. They never get clearer, they never move forward. It’s a space where Clark can literally rearrange his worst moments however he sees fit without ever having to confront the next steps.

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Anonymous #1 9w

So all of that is to say, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to say that the movie has no plot, no point, and no payoff, because it’s all one. The plot is a representation of the point it’s trying to make, and the payoff is that Mary literally gets pulled into the monster that Clark created in trying to help him.

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Anonymous #1 9w

I literally gave it 3 stars its not like i gave it 1 star. Jesus Christ. I like the thematic story but I'm standing firm that the plot just does not tell Mary and Clark's story in an interesting enough way.

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Anonymous OP 9w

What do you consider interesting though? What would you rather have happened?

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Anonymous OP 9w

Also, you said it was a nothing burger. I wouldn’t consider a nothing burger 3 stars lmao

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Anonymous #1 9w

I found the mechanisms that move the plot forward to be too sparse. To me the movie comes across as a lot of filler that serves no purpose other than "contributing to the atmosphere", which i talked about is flawed in another comment below. Its like *nothing* happens until it does. I wouldve liked the movie better if they filled those empty spaces with character interaction, suspense, maybe a subplot, SOMETHING. I do think a movie can be too nebulous for its own good.

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Anonymous OP 9w

lol i feel like you didn’t understand i single word 1 said

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Anonymous #2 9w

what is your obsession with doing this whole "you dont understand anything you tiktok brained idiot" thing

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Anonymous OP 9w

But the environment is the entire point dude. Like every prop and set decoration is intentionally placed there for a reason. You’re supposed to actively look around and collect clues about the characters as it goes.

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Anonymous #1 9w

Yes, now take that environmental storytelling and double it.

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