Editorials
What Exactly Are The ‘Backrooms’ and Where Did They Come From?
There’s a popular interview where David Bowie is explaining how the internet is going to revolutionize media and ends up describing the web as “an alien lifeform.” Despite the video being from all the way back in 1999, I’ve always thought that this was one of the wisest and most concise descriptions of what cyberspace has become since it first expanded from government intranets and evolved into an invisible overlay that haunts and manipulates the real world.
If you need proof that the internet is a living, breathing entity, look no further than the ever-evolving collection of viral myths and online folktales that seem to organically spread across the world as if promoted by a singular intelligence. It just so happens that one of these ideas has finally blossomed into popular culture outside the internet, with The Backrooms – a Creepypasta dating all the way back to 2011 – finally being turned into a fully-fledged studio horror film courtesy of A24 and YouTube prodigy Kane Parsons.
In honor of the first teaser promising that the upcoming adaptation is a faithful retelling of the internet legend that conquered the world, we thought that this might be a good moment to refresh readers’ memories about what the Backrooms actually are and where this story originally came from. So strap in because we’re about noclip into layers of reality that the human mind was never meant to comprehend…
The Rise of a New Creepypasta
The original Backrooms.
For the uninitiated, Creepyastas are the horror form of “Copypastas”, a term meant to refer to frequently reposted stories that were “copy-pasted” and shared across numerous forums, websites, and even viral e-mails. As these bite-sized horror yarns became more popular, online communities soon gathered to collect and collaborate on them. The Backrooms mythos was actually the result of a single photograph, which sparked users’ imaginations and led to a form of collaborative fiction.
The original image that began the story was later revealed to be a HobbyTown store under renovation, but the uniform carpets, bizarre wallpaper, and seemingly never-ending hallways somehow lent themselves to storycrafting about a place that looked both utterly alien and eerily familiar at the same time. This is where we get into liminal horror, a topic that we’ve previously covered due to the genre’s inspirations in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (itself a book about an infinitely expanding house that’s larger on the inside).
Though I argued in that article that liminal horror can be traced back to Danielewski’s 2000 novel and possibly even further in media like The Shining (with the genre being best described as architectural terror derived from uncanny spaces), I don’t think anyone can deny that The Backrooms really popularized the concept. Liminal horror became a household name as users attempted to classify this collection of seemingly innocuous and “empty” images that made them feel uncomfortable.
The Backrooms Game
Of course, the Backrooms ball only really started rolling in 2019 when an anonymous 4Chan user answered a repost of the original picture in a thread about disquieting images. This is where we got the now-iconic nano-horror story that serves as the first example of Backrooms lore:
“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.”
*A term used to describe exiting the designated play-area in videogames in a way that wasn’t intended by the developers.
The Backrooms Leads to New Wave of Liminal Horror
This brief little piece of existential terror was enough to kickstart the liminal horror movement into overdrive, with other users creating their own liminal hellscapes (such as the liminal pools) and some even choosing to expand the existing mythology with additional “levels” to the Backrooms – each featuring their own collection of photoshopped images depicting all manners of monsters and oddities.
The popularity of these stories also led to adaptations in the form of several video games and even a bizarre episode of the American Horror Stories anthology show. However, the biggest addition to the mythology would only come in early 2022 when High Schooler and YouTuber extraordinaire Kane Parsons (then going by the online moniker Kane Pixels) uploaded the iconic first entry in his incredibly popular Backrooms webseries.
The short film served as a perfect introduction to the concept of a terrifying alternate world layered underneath our own, with its found footage elements and retro aesthetics turning the video into something of a viral phenomenon even outside of the Creepypasta community. Parsons wasn’t a one-trick pony, however, with the YouTuber soon expanding on his (ongoing) series and coming up with his own mythology surrounding an institute named Async and the challenges that they face in attempting to study the Backrooms Complex.
With the web-series becoming a worldwide hit, it’s only natural that Hollywood soon came knocking as several studios were interested in bringing Parsons’ vision of liminal terror to the big screen. A24 was ultimately the one to convince the young filmmaker to adapt his ideas into a feature film, though Parsons wisely decided to finish High School before committing to directing such a massive project.
That’s how we get to the long-awaited release of the first trailer for Parsons’ and A24’s Backrooms film. A nightmarish dream come true for fans of liminal horror, the adaptation stars heavyweights like Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve and is set to come out in May of this year.
From what we’ve seen from the trailer so far, it looks like the movie will incorporate aspects from the entire history of the Backrooms, not just the series. That’s why I can’t wait to check it out – so long as there’s a way to noclip back out of the experience once the credits roll!
Editorials
‘Bloodstone: Subspecies II’ Revisited: A Bigger, Bolder Follow-Up to Full Moon’s Vampire Cult Classic
Horror sequels are a peculiar thing. In most cases, follow-ups to scary movies tend to retread the same formula with different victims and more over-the-top scares. This is because audiences tend to be more interested in the antagonists of these pictures than anything else, with even main characters becoming disposable when the time comes to produce a sequel.
That’s why some of the most memorable horror sequels are the ones that actually manage to hold onto interesting survivors from previous films while also pushing the story forward instead of having the same thing happen again to a different group of people. From Scream 2 to Dream Warriors (and arguably even The Exorcist III: Legion), there are quite a few of these innovative sequels to go around.
However, if there’s one franchise that deserves more attention when discussing bigger and better continuations that make the most of episodic filmmaking, it has to be Ted Nicolaou’s Subspecies.
The Full Moon classic spawned an indie horror icon, but bizarre sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II is even more beloved than its predecessor.
Building a Bigger Vampire Saga
While the film itself takes place almost immediately after the events of the first movie, Bloodstone only entered production a couple of years after the release of the original as both Charles Band and Nicolaou weighed the pros and cons of returning to Romania to continue the series. In an effort to maximize efficiency, the team decided to invest in a trilogy where parts II and III, now fully written by Nicolaou, would be filmed simultaneously over the course of a single grueling shoot.
Much like the first Subspecies, Bloodstone’s low budget meant that the filmmakers once again had to cut corners and re-use as many of their resources as possible. Thankfully, the process was much easier this time around as Nicolaou, with the help of Romanian cinematographer Vlad Paunescu and his wife Oana, became more acquainted with local customs and made new friends. Shooting abroad still came with its own unique set of challenges due to a lack of translators and the occasional safety concerns, but the crew managed to make things work by filming things guerrilla-style and setting up shop in abandoned caves and real medieval ruins.
The director’s newfound contacts, coupled with the relative success of the first movie, meant that he was basically given free rein over an assortment of shooting locations usually considered off-limits for indie horror. That’s why Bloodstone features insanely ambitious lighting and effects work even during scenes shot in the middle of a bustling Bucharest. The filmmakers went so far as to project Radu’s Nosferatu-like shadows over local monuments as if he were a Romanian boogeyman, an idea that was actually encouraged by local cinephiles.
In fact, many of the more elaborate scenes here had originally been planned for the first movie before being discarded due to the lack of available resources. It was only with the support of Romanian fans and filmmakers that Bloodstone was able to give Radu a chance to be even more menacing the second time around.
Michelle’s Transformation Takes Center Stage
However, when it came to the American part of the crew, not everyone was able or willing to return for another round of Romanian adventuring. That’s why Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) is unceremoniously killed off at the beginning of the film while the role of Michelle had to be recast. Denice Duff took over for Laura Mae Tate, with the character now being joined by her sister, Rebecca, played by Melanie Shatner (yes, that Shatner).
In the finished film, we follow Michelle as she awakens to her new life as a vampire and discovers that Radu has murdered her lover. Struggling with grief and her newfound bloodlust, Michelle contacts her sister overseas, with Rebecca soon travelling to Romania on an ill-advised rescue mission. Meanwhile, Radu (Anders Hove) reaches out to his undead Mummy (Pamela Gordon, underneath heavy layers of impressive makeup effects) and promises to deliver her the coveted Bloodstone artifact while also making Michelle his eternal consort.
Revisiting the movie, I was impressed with how introspective this story is when compared to the original. The sequel assumes that you’re already familiar with the previously established characters, so the story wastes no time in exploring the immediate aftermath of the previous film’s events. From Michelle’s reluctant transformation into a creature of the night to Radu’s obvious mommy issues, Nicolaou is way more interested in pushing these characters into new and uncharted territory rather than recycling existing plot points.
Practical Effects and Gothic Atmosphere Still Impress
Yet, much like the first film, it’s Romania itself that makes the movie worth watching. The ruins of Castle Vladislav are even more majestic now, and visiting the moody streets of Bucharest with its surprisingly punk-rock nightlife made for a nice change of pace when compared to the original film’s quiet village setting. Once again, the abundance of interesting locations makes the movie feel much more expensive than it really is, with the filmmakers surrounding our characters with a living, breathing environment that would be impossible to recreate in a studio.
The increased freedom also allowed Nicolaou to flex his filmmaking muscles and tackle more ambitious blocking/composition in the sequel. The low budget and tropey script mean that the visuals don’t always work, but it’s consistently clear that this neo-expressionist style could only come from a passionate team attempting to pay homage to the shadowy horror classics of yesteryear. If the retro atmosphere isn’t enough for you, there’s enough practical gore here to satisfy even the most demanding of horror hounds!
Radu himself is also far more interesting now that Hove is more comfortable working alongside an international crew, with the actor having gone on record explaining that, while he spent more time drinking vodka than working while shooting the first movie, the sequel was a much more creatively satisfying experience for everyone involved. The character’s relationship with his abusive Mummy is also a highlight of the expanded mythology, especially since the practical effects that bring her to life are just as freaky now as they were back in ’93.
My only real gripe with the horror elements of the picture comes from the glaring absence of the diminutive stop-motion minions from the first film, though I guess the surprisingly entertaining addition of Professor Popescu (Michael Denish) and his archeological antics mostly make up for that.
Bloodstone: Subspecies II is obviously the middle chapter of a trilogy, with the ending feeling a lot less definitive than its predecessor as several plot threads are left to dangle in the wind, but I appreciate how the flick explores new ground while remaining faithful to nearly all the ideas that made the original such a good time. While I don’t think it’s as big of an improvement over the first movie as some fans make it out to be, Bloodstone is definitely worth revisiting if you’re a fan of old-fashioned vampire yarns.
Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion to this initial trilogy, Bloodlust: Subspecies III!
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