one of the most obvious metaphors in the backrooms movie that i somehow havenāt seen anyone talk about yet is how the backrooms represents generative ai. nothing the backrooms creates is original; it only can create copies of whatās directly fed into it, and it still makes mistakes. from afar it looks normal, but the second you actually look at it, nothing makes sense. everything even has the same ugly piss filter on it. the movie perfectly encapsulates the uncanny valley that came with early ai images. clark uses the backrooms to escape from reality and even replaces the relationships he has with the still lifes, just like how some people today rely entirely on ai to comfort, help, and talk to them. both genai and the backrooms are destroying peoples humanity and relationships. both are inanimate, non-sentient monsters that are more deadly than any creature.
anyways go talk to a real person. go strengthen a human relationship you have.
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This is gonna be long, i have never had so many thoughts abt a movie. Tldr: the backrooms is about how trauma and mental illness can trap people, and i wanted to look at that from an anti-capitalist and anti-patriarchy angle. Warning for minor to major spoilers!
I fucking loved the backrooms because of how complicated and human both clark and mary are. As mary says in the beginning, while he isnt handling it well, clarkās anger at his situation is completely normal. The way he acts in therapy is perfectly normal and helpful for working through his emotions (i love the way therapy is portrayed in this movie). Heās overworked and stressed and feels under appreciated by everyone around him, especially his wife, and itās best to get that anger out in a controlled environment where it can be examined and worked through. But due to his unwillingness to change and entitlement that he should be able to do whatever he wants because heās the only one financially supporting his family (at the moment), all while having seemingly no other support system than his therapist (who is not the best at her job tbh), he instead makes things worse and his mental health spirals. The situation heās in isnt entirely his fault, but the way heās handling it is.
To me it seemed pretty clear that mary has some connection with the backrooms prior to where the movie begins, or at least her situation as a child mirrored the backrooms. When clark brings it up sheās not able to compartmentalize how it makes her feelāitās like it triggered something in her. That, combined with the scene where we descend through maryās house and it gradually becomes more and more abstracted, makes me think that the backrooms are a pretty direct representation of her trauma, which she clearly has not worked through and which clark is unintentionally making resurface. I think her intentionally going into the backrooms is her trying, and ultimately failing, to confront and work through her trauma.
So with all that said, I like trying to find the root of issues when it comes to things like mental health, and in this case I think the root of both clark and maryās issues is the patriarchal, capitalist society they live in. Clark is expected to hold up an entire household on his own because thats what men are supposed to do. Hes supposed to be a stoic supporter for his wife, who is supposed to wait on him hand and foot when he comes home after a long day of work. But that isnt whats happening. His wife being in law school means she literally does not have time to take care of him, much less hold down a job. Even though we never see clarkās wife, we can assume that she expects him to fulfill his end of this patriarchal ideal as well without complaint, which he obviously does not do due to how insanely stressed out he is. Itās hard to act ānormalā when you feel like everything is falling apart around you. She understandably, given that itās kinda implied that he threw it, kicks him out after he breaks a glass. But given that clark pays for the house itās also understandable that heās upset about this.
Mary is a mediocre-to-not-very-good therapist. She clearly hasnt been able to work through her issues and may also be financially struggling, though probably not as much as clark. She doesnt seem to be out for money and nothing else, so the fact that sheās published this self help-esque audiobook points to her needing the extra income (self-help media is not an adequate replacement for therapy given that therapy is a highly personal thing, so self help books marketed as a universal solution are deceptive at best and exploitative of struggling people at worst).
Psychology, as an institution, is very flawed even if youre seeing the best, most experienced therapist in the world. It tackles the issues inside your mind and therefore isnāt great at addressing material issues like finances and even can contribute to financial straināit can help you manage your stress and anxiety, sure, but it cant fix your material situation. Honestly I think part of this is by design. Psychology is operating in a capitalist society and itās pitched as a Universal Fix for your problems, so if you go to therapy and you still have issues? Well, it cant possibly be society, so it must be you, the individual. Maybe youre just not trying hard enough, or youre doing something wrong.
I wanna make it clear that it wasnt maryās job to āfixā clark, as that isnt what therapy is about. Itās about guiding you and giving you tools to work through your problems alongside someone who can offer valuable insight into whatās going on in your mind. If the patient doesnt want to put in the work, and/or the therapist isnt effectively supporting them, they wont get better, which is exactly what happens with clark and mary. Itās a failure on both ends. Clark is unwilling to change, and mary is unable to compartmentalize her trauma in order to do her job. This all culminates in the ādinnerā scene. Clark allows himself to literally be consumed by the image he has of himself. Mary then tries to outrun that image, which I think represents her trauma, and almost escapesāuntil the final scene. She comes to believe that sheāll never be able to escape the backroomsāher traumaāand gives in, which is what I think the distorted mary at the end represents. She sees herself as trapped yet again and cant fathom escaping.
In the end, if both of these people had adequately been supported by their families, communities, and society at large, they likely would never have found the backrooms or even met in the first place. The expectations of capitalism and patriarchy (that men are stoic providers that women must wait on hand and foot, and that one person is enough to provide for entire household, and that mental health is a purely individual issue) was what doomed them before the movie even began.
Aaand i think im done! I love seeing analysis of this movie and Im really curious if anyone has wrote about this from a Black perspective. I feel like theres things to be said about Black men and mental health, especially given that (seemingly) two of the main women in clarkās life are white. I think theres some criticism warranted as well irt deformed faces being used as body horror, so Id be interested to hear abt that as well
rewatching backrooms I realized that Clark and Mary foil eachother when it comes to processing their trauma.
Clark is addicted to his grief. His struggles fuel him and give him purpose, and embracing his flaws served as a rebirth for him (heās literally remembered in the backrooms as a manifestation of anger, grief, and despair though Captain Clark.) without the rage, the complaining, and the alcohol Clark doesnāt existā I think thatās what scares him so much.
Mary, on the other hand, is adverse to it. Despite being a therapist and basing her life around others, she canāt save them just as much as she canāt save herself. She runs. She spaces out when she sees mother-daughter relationships, she distances herself from areas that remind her of childhood, and in the face of the same trauma and anguish Clark cravesā she runs for her life. Obviously part of it is because she wants to survive, but another layer to that is she canāt cope with her own feelings.
It even shows up in how these two talk with eachother! Clark is ego-centered, even in his more self-deprecating talk during his therapy sessions. Mary repeats phrases from her book because sheās detached from the emotional aspect of her job for reasons she may not even understand yet.
For Clark, the āWindow from Withinā was a way IN (deeper into his grief, into isolation). For Mary, it was a way OUT (out of her grief, out of her struggles.)
Not to mention it appears in their still lives!! As I mentioned before, Capān Clark is everything horrid about Clark; his drunkenness, his hostility, and the fear he brings to the people around himā he embodies Clarkās emotional complexity. In contrast, Maryās still life is unmoving and seemingly catatonic. Her still life doesnāt feel anything. Doesnāt do anything. Like her regular self, sheās detached from feeling anything and everything!!!
flame me if you want for not getting this sooner,, sigh,, overallā I love this movie. Everyone go watch it again if you can.
Watching dudebros analyze the backrooms movie is wild because like! Itās extremely on the nose with its themes surrounding the cycle of abuse and yet most ātheoryā videos Iāve seen refuse to engage with that in the slightest
Backrooms movie spoilers! And probably also House of Leaves spoilers too. Big long analysis post under the cut.
I thought for that whole movie about the parallels between Clark and Will Navidson. Both escaping their problems in the tangible reality by throwing themselves into the nebulous unknown of a construct of their own minds. Both stepping on everyone around them as if people are nothing but tools to further their own goals. Both driven deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, pursued by the dark manifestation of their deepest repressions. They are one and the same.
But it only just now clicked for me. The memory in the wheelchair is Reston. Maybe not him as his role was in HOL. But it's a reference to him.
Bobby and Kat are Wax and Jed, the hesitant documenters.
Barbara is Karen Green, the strained relationship who got left behind amidst the chaos of Clark's/Navidson's self-righteousness.
The twisted backrooms version of Clark is, of course, the Minotaur: the self-imposed manifestation of paranoia and guilt and fear.
The entrance to the backrooms is bordered in blue, much like how the house is outlined in the book.
The psychologist who narrates passages from her book is ZampanƓ, the lens through which to analyze the nature of the space itself.
And all of that leaves Mary, as an outsider looking in, trying to understand through Clark's words alone, and twisted unrecognizably through time and space amidst intersplices of her own troubled past. It didn't hit me until later.
Mary is Johnny Truant. Her mother, Pelafina. She has trauma of her own that haunts her like a vulture. The memories we see of her childhood home are eerily similar to the apartment Johnny caged himself in while trying to analyze ZampanƓ's manuscript. The pages taped to the windows are rather on the nose, a metaphorical thing for Johnny becoming a physical thing for Mary.
We don't see much of Mary beyond these sparse intersplices. It's a far cry from Johnny's role in House of Leaves. But perhaps Backrooms needed to place itself primarily in Clark's perspective in order to give us the ending it did. An ending that is reminiscent of HOL's, with the house simply dissolving into nothing, and Navidson's strained relationships magically resolving. It's an ending that he would have liked to have happen, but one that likely didn't, if Johnny's paralleled admission of a lie is to be believed. Backrooms' is far less ambiguous, placing itself firmly in the stance of 'Navidson is an unreliable narrator who tried to lie to you'.
Mary never entered the backrooms. Clark only imagined she did. She existed as a memory, a twisted reflection of what he wanted from her: a therapist who would ease his guilt and tell him he was right. Clark never even managed to leave the backrooms to call her. And nobody defeated his Minotaur.
There is no sense to be had in the backrooms. There is no resolution to be found. There's not even a monster to slay. Everyone's deaths and everyone's misfortune was at the hands of Clark alone, blinded by his own fantasies and hubris.
There are gaps missing. There is no Holloway (even if you could argue Clark embodies some of his traits), no Tom, no Thumper (though perhaps she exists in some form offscreen. After all, we didn't get to see much of Mary). Backrooms isn't all-encompassing. But enough is there to make it something to talk about.
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I saw someone say the backrooms can be seen as a metaphor for gen AI and I wanna expand on that: along with the copying things but without the soul AI (especially chatbots) also exploits people with mental issues into staying with it instead of connecting with real people and face their problems
Chatbots are kind of like the still lives. Things that are made to act like people but arenāt really, they donāt feel anything and you can do whatever you want with them
I honestly didn't get that the redheaded Still Life was Barbara on my first watch, but that's so smart that it pisses me off I didn't think of that. Regardless, it's SO interesting to me that when we first see her, she's holding her scalp, and then when we next see her, she gets scalped. All of the text in the Backrooms is reversed after all. Maybe time progresses nonlinearly in the same way mental illness does. The Backrooms are a stand in for a collective unconscious, so it would make sense for me. Of course, it would also make sense as a hint to the fact that Clark is abusive and has done something like this before. When Captain Clark appears, the Still Life runs into the corner in horror. Clearly, he's done something to her to get her so scared.
It's also so clearly Jungian like I know I said that before but oh my God. It even has anima/animus with our two protagonists. Numinous, persona, synchronicity, shadow selves. I'll get into full essay mode later but holy shit.
More spoilery/analyzing thoughts on Clark in Backrooms (2026)
You have been warned!
Brief note: before I saw this movie, I saw a very bad faith review of it. The person basically suggested that the tone of the movie is too hopeless and bleak to possibly enjoy it, which is funny considering they made some very edgy jokes bookending both ends of the review. Iāll spare you those, but Iāll show you what else they wrote.
ā1/2 out of 5 stars.
F*** this movie. Everyone dies, life is meaningless, you're a failure and it's your fault. I saved you ten dollars. You're welcome.ā
Very lame. Honestly, with this as my first impression, it allowed me to go into the movie with my mind actually turned on, because I didnāt want to have this experience, and I was determined to get more out of it.
With that out of the wayā¦
First, I didnāt quite see the race angle of the criticism until I looked up the movie on Tumblr, probably because Iām not black myself. I personally never made any sort of connection between Clark being somewhat aggressive and self-centered and the fact that heās black, I donāt think the movie ever wanted us to feel that way either. I just figured the actor they casted happens to be black, and that this character could feasibly be played by anyone. Maybe some of my own ignorance is showing here though.
As far as his actual character, I think heās fascinating. I donāt feel like we know enough to judge fully whether he is a full-blown abusive husband or if he just has anger management and alcohol issues. Many people have said that the Still Life behind him in the dinner scene is of Barbara, his wife, but I donāt remember well enough what Barbara looks like to confirm or deny that. I think heās kind of just setting up his ideal life down there, because the Still Lifes arenāt āreal peopleā anymore, so he can make them do whatever he wants.
Iāve seen some people suggesting that Clark is a narcissist. Iām not exactly sure. While I donāt want to vilify a psychological disorder, I could see the evidence for that, to tell the truth. He does not want to take accountability for his actions, the way in which he has hurt people, and he is thriving in a world where nobody can argue against him and he has complete control.
I donāt see Clark as a full-blown villain. I see him as an antagonist, potentially even an anti-hero. I think he was a very insecure and anxious man who was unable to accept the fact that he was insecure and anxious, and when he found a world where he could take complete control, that warped his mind further into his own flaws because it was a place where he didnāt have to take accountability or challenge his viewpoint.
As somebody whoās studying to be a therapist, I was analyzing him like crazy during the therapy session with Mary. He struck me as somebody who wasnāt going to therapy because he genuinely wanted to improve, he was going to therapy to try and prove everybody else wrong about him. Some people have suggested it mightāve been court mandated, I donāt know enough to judge that. I could see that he wasnāt willing to fully emotionally engage, and I thought that was going to be his main problem. I was right.
I absolutely love the imagery and symbolism that we see in the dinner scene.
Heās got these two people in his āhouseā, perhaps visitors, perhaps intended to be the āchildrenā Barbara wanted. The placeholder for Barbara herself is standing directly behind him, inanimate, simply staring at the floor. She doesnāt even get to sit at the table with him and Mary, because he only wants the essence of her. He quite literally mutilates her just to get a life that is better suited to him down here. I know the entities here are called Still Lifeā¦ I canāt think of a better term to describe the life that Clark has crafted for himself here. Thereās no life here, itās just preserved specimens under a painted veneer. ļæ¼
He is quite literally feeding off of the people around him, which could serve as a visual for somebody who is all take and no give. Emotional cannibalism, almost.
The fact that he has Katās head in the fridge almost makes me think of someone mounting a deerās head on a wall. True, sheās initially kept out of sight, but I almost feel like he viewed her and Bobby dying as a means to an end. I mean, he heard the footsteps before he brought them in, and had been exploring for quite some time, he knew there couldāve been danger and he brought them in anyway, because he wanted to prove a point to Mary. That to me suggests selfishness and self absorbed thinking as well.
I also found myself sympathizing with Clark though, and I donāt think it was just because he started out as our protagonist. Again, while he does show qualities that suggest heās very selfish and inconsiderate of other people around him, he also seems deeply insecure and anxious. Him talking about how the Still Lifes canāt feel pain can suggest two things potentially. The first one could be that he doesnāt have to worry about hurting anybody here, which again, fits with the selfishness. But it also suggests that heās jealous of them for the fact that they canāt feel pain, which suggests that he feels a lot of it and wishes that he didnāt.
He says, for the first time, he feels like he belongs somewhere. As someone who struggles in social situations quite a lot, I do find myself relating to the idea of getting to live in a world where everything goes the way I hope it will go. Where absolutely nobody is out to get me, I can feel safe, and I donāt have to be afraid. But the fact of the matter is, thatās just not reality, and if I stayed in that mindset, in a world of my own creation, I would never get to challenge my viewpoint that the world is dangerous. So neither does Clark. He doesnāt even want to acknowledge that he feels that way.
ā¦Iām going to stop trauma dumping now. ļæ¼
I find it interesting that he asks her to tell him that this isnāt his fault. Heās looking for an escape, for a reason to stay in this world he crafted for himself. I think he 100% could have gotten out alive. But I donāt think he wanted to.
I found Maryās rant to be very cathartic. Clark did strike me as somebody who wasnāt willing to engage fully in therapy. And thatās the problem. I would not say that Clark is 100% of his own problem. I donāt think we know him well enough to fully conclude that with absolute certainty, but at the same time, we can see that he does tend to blame everything but himself for his issues.
Mary came down there wanting to save him, but he didnāt want to be saved. He came to therapy, but he didnāt want to get better. We donāt get to choose what happens to us, just like Clark didnāt choose to discover the Backrooms. But we do choose what we do with it. Instead of moving on from a distorted and broken down past, Clark decided to live in it. To literally settle down and make a home there. He didnāt want to be saved, so he wasnāt. A big part of therapy is acknowledging where you may be contributing to the problem. That doesnāt make you evil, but we all have some degree of control in our lives, and sometimes you need to learn how to use it healthily if itās been taken from you. Clark used it in all the wrong ways.ļæ¼
Then we get to Pirate Clark. The Pirate embodies all of the worst attributes of Clark. I love the symbolism with the fact that he literally begins to eat Clark alive after Clark says that they donāt have to change. This man completely misses the point.
I think Pirate Clark taking a bite out of his real self is a visual for the idea of someone being completely consumed by their flaws because they refuse to change. His own demons literally ate him alive. If you want to take a more sympathetic route, you could say that not dealing with his issues led to the end of himself.
If I remember correctly, Pirate Clark isnāt actually all that mutated. As far as his body goes, sure, his head is a little bit distorted, and heās missing a leg, and heās ginormous, but many of his facial features are much more intact than a lot of Still Lifes that we see. It could be because heās a recent addition, so heās not quite as distorted, but at the same time, comparing him with Maryās Still Life, heās not as warped.
I think itās possible the Backrooms also reflects the way in which people recall their own memories. The ending, in my opinion, is meant to show the fact that Mary has been reflecting on her experiences, and while they are forever going to be a part of her, the memories are gradually breaking down over time. Every time you recall a traumatic event, you process it a little bit more, but you also remember it a little bit less as it actually was. It sort of becomes a new memory every time you think about it.
Iāve heard people say that the dog you feed is the one that wins, and I donāt think itās any coincidence that Pirate Clark is as enormous as he is. I think his mostly overall human anatomy suggests the fact that Clark hasnāt been reflecting on his past. So the bad has remained intact. I think the fact that he bleeds and even seems to maybe feel pain also connects to that.
I donāt really have a good conclusion for this, I think this is all I wanted to say. Maybe I will reblog with more later. If youāve made it this far, I wanted to say thank you for reading. ļæ¼
