!SPOILERS FOR THE BACKROOMS!
Some references I spotted and other rambling thoughts
I got to see the Backrooms movie in theatres yesterday and I loved everything about it, it's the first film in a long time that has genuinly scared me.
As a result, I can't stop thinking about it! So here are some easter eggs/references I noticed while watching:
1. 'B1 - All that follows is true' plays during the scene where Mary's mother is in the hospital
It's a track from The Caretaker's album - Everywhere at the End of Time
The Caretaker's music has been in used in liminal space related content for years now, so seeing that aspect of this internet mythos being included was beautiful.
The album itself is about dementia and losing one's self, being trapped in your own mind, going through loops of your own experiences, things that were once familiar to you slowly becoming unrecognizable until everything is alien. To me, the backrooms being linked to this album and by extension, dementia and other mental illnesses is no coincidence at all.
I think the horror of both the backrooms and conditions like dementia compliment eachother very well, I think it would be difficult to imagine the backrooms completly divorced from these themes and it still invoking the same sense of dread.
The song also plays throughout the segment where we sink deeper into the layers of the backrooms where the copy of Mary's childhood home becomes more and more distorted. Like a memory trying to be recalled, but the harder someone tries to remember it, the further it gets from reality. This as well, more subtly solidifies the connection between these themes.
2. The tape on the wall being a possible reference to 'Stage 6 - Everywhere at the End of Time'
The tape on the wall leading to the backrooms as seen in the film and in promotional material is very reminiscent of the cover of Stage 6 from EATEOT.
The film's main theme is about mental illness and trauma, this and The Caretaker song being included makes me think this may have been a reference. I don't think it would be far fetched at all.
The last time we see the tape on the wall is when Mary enters the backrooms to find Clark, when she does, he's a shell of his former self. Clark has wondered the backrooms for who knows how long, losing his mind more and more in the process. (Much like Mary's mother, both people she was unable to help.)
I think the yellow office building backrooms area where we start can be interpreted as a reflection of Clark's mind. The area itself has similarities to his furniture store, a monstrous version of him roams the halls, the entire store AND the surrounding area is in the backrooms, the enterance is in his basement, and weird glitches from the backrooms appear and effect the real world. If we subscribe to the MRI machine connection theory, then I think it's possible that the backrooms was able to copy him and his mind so much because of his close prolonged proximity to it. (He spends all his time at store, including sleeping.) Also why his still life is so different from the others.
3. Saturn Devouring His Son
The scene where Captain/Pirate Clark starts eating Clark immediatly reminded me of the painting, Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya.
With the connection between Clark and the backrooms, I think this event symbolizes Clark being fully consumed by the worst parts of himself. In the very scene proceeding this one, Clark admits that he doesn't want to change and that he'd rather stay in the backrooms. He tells Pirate Clark that they don't have to change after all, and that's when the monster representing his anger and self-destructive tendencies, literally eats him alive.
Another angle I found, is that this is a retelling of the night he got kicked out by his wife. Clark is forcing Mary to reenact what had happened, and by the end, Pirate Clark stumbles in unexpectedly, representing the worst parts of himself, consumes him like his anger did that night. It is a grotesque, distorted copy of what had happened. It makes me think of the scene with Mary's childhood home progressively getting unrecognisable. Kane's backrooms doesn't follow linear time either, so maybe, no matter how hard Clark tries to break free from this cycle, he was never meant to leave. Unable to escape his fate much like Saturn in the myth.
I also think the monster either mimics Clark's behavior or behaves according to Clark's thoughts/the inner workings of his mind. I'm not sure what to make if right now.
All in all this movie was everything I wanted it to be and more. It perfectly evoked the feelings I got when talks of liminal spaces, and previously 'cursed images', started occuring online.
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