Editorials
‘The Backrooms Game’ Brings a Modern Creepypasta to Life [What We Play in the Shadows]
“If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.”
In May 2019, the paranormal discussion board of infamous internet site 4chan featured a thread asking for pictures that felt “wrong” or “off” somehow. One user submitted a photo of an oddly large open room with hideous yellow wallpaper, fluorescent lights you’d expect to find in a dollar store, and the kind of carpet that dominated dentist offices in the early 90s. The photo featured a dutch angle that made it all seem just a little more sinister. Another user contributed the evocative description above, and the Backrooms were born.
As an internet creation, the Backrooms are new to the scene, just now a year old. Regardless, they’ve taken the creepypasta world by storm. Multiple stories, fan art, and games have been created focusing on the endless location. The Backrooms Game is perhaps the most polished interactive experience available, but it’s still underfurnished as a concept. (I apologize for that joke. Let’s move on.)
The Backrooms Game Free Edition gives you all the advice you need at the start: venture as far as you can without going insane. Check your watch every thirty seconds to remember who you are and why you’re there. DON’T LOOK AT IT. And then you’re immediately dumped into the never-ending hallways, tasked with staying alive long enough to find the exit.
Controls are simple as can be: WASD to get around, E to interact, TAB to view your watch. Partial controller support is available, but not necessary for a game like this. It’s essentially a walking simulator, with very little anxiety where reflexes are concerned. The anxiety is supplied by the visuals and sound design, which are rigidly faithful to the original description posted on 4chan. The lights hum maddeningly, the wallpaper repeats endlessly, and the hallways go on essentially forever. If Smell-O-Vision was a thing, this game would include the stink of the old moist carpet.
There isn’t a story, only a goal: escape. The random generation of the Backrooms means that you could wander for an hour or find the exit inside of 10 minutes. There is, of course, a hideous creature to avoid, but it’s laughably easy to do so. If you listen carefully and take care not to sprint around corners without checking what lies ahead first, you may never see it. The game wants you to check your watch every 30 seconds to keep your sanity in check, but the farther you go the more unhinged you become regardless. Prepare for some shifting patterns and extinguished lights.
Currently, there is little reason to revisit The Backrooms Game except to set your own records for distance or fastest time to the exit. Developer Pie On a Plate Productions has a road map for future enhancements that include everything from more monsters and monster encounters to a detailed inventory system. The game is 100% free, but you can choose to support the dev team’s plans for a very reasonable amount of $2.99. The potential for a deeper, richer game is certainly there.
The Backrooms Game excels as an existential experiment in terror and childhood fear… for the first five minutes. Literature majors will appreciate the connection to Charlotte Perkins Gilman and gaming YouTubers will appreciate having another title to squeeze some views out of. Most of us will escape quickly or get bored gradually. Either way, one trip is more than enough, at least until those additional features are implemented.
The Backrooms Game Free Edition is available on Steam.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.
For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!
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