Why BACKROOMS’ Visual Style Drives You Insane

Why does the backrooms look like this? I've noticed every review talks about. the same thing. It's a mood or it's the. aesthetic. Maybe it's just the vibe. It's transcendent, atmospherically. haunting, but so were all these other. movies like The Shining, Exit 8, Escape. Room, 1408, Asbow, So Below, and even. Cam. The thing is, every creative and. technical choice in the back rooms. actually builds that feeling that made. us call it a vibe or atmospherically. haunting. It kept us talking about the. movie long after we've seen it. And with. a film like Backrooms, a project that. began as a single image slowly growing. into its own lore over decades, the goal. for the movie wasn't really to define.

what this world is, but to expand on it. without closing it off. In the director. Kane Parson's own words, the horror of. the back rooms isn't in the space being. explained, it's in how much of it gets. filled in by us. If the horror comes. from what we project onto this space, then every visual decision has to. support that feeling. That's where the. architecture, the lighting, the. cinematography, and sound design come. in, which we'll get into in this video. There's a lot of different movies to. check out in regards to liinal horror or. liinal spaces. And the concept of it is. nothing new, of course, but I find that. most of these movies always have to. bring a lot of existential dread and. never fully balance between reality and.

fiction, which wasn't hard for a. franchise like this one that found a lot. of footing during the pandemic when in a. way we were also trapped in our own. spaces. So, the vibes familiar, but our. relationship to it is already personal. As humans, liinal spaces naturally. trigger anxiety. Part of that is learned. through horror movies, but it also comes. from our everyday lives. We read empty. parking garages or abandoned offices as. potentially dangerous because spaces. without people, without rules, can be. places that are ultimately very. dangerous. So, we don't need a monster. necessarily to make this movie feel. wrong. It helps, but it really starts. with the environments that already sit. really close to memory. It taps into our.

fascination with the unknown while. appealing to a younger audience. Unlike. other creepy pasta movies like Slender. Man, The Backgrounds draws from a very. Gen Z anxiety. The battle against AI, where things that look almost right are. completely off. And in a world. experienced through our phones, we're. surrounded by endless choices. is. curated by algorithms we don't fully. control, kind of like the back rooms. At. the same time, it taps into a nostalgia. for that Y2K vibe of design and. aesthetic that younger people have. become very fascinated by in the recent. years, while preserving a bit of genuine. memories for us older millennials. The.

result is a world that feels both new. and remembered, a perfect basis for that. kind of uncanny horror that The Back. Rooms really thrives on. The team behind. The Back Rooms was a full army. However, I do want to highlight director and. co-composer Kane Parsons, who worked. with the cinematographer Jeremy Cox. Cox. previously shot Keeper and Mile and. Kicks and also worked as second unit DP. on Long Legs and the Monkey. He's also. worked on the 2024 psychological horror. series The Edge of Sleep, where. Markiplier starred as the lead. And. given Markiplier's jump into feature. film making with Iron Lung, this isn't. Jeremy's first time working with. YouTubers, moving into fullscale.

cinematic productions. Cox has also been. working with a Vancouver based. production company called Oddfellows, the same company behind Back Rooms, Longlegs, The Monkey, and Keeper. Chris. Ferguson, who has been running. Oddfellows for over a decade, originally. introduced him to Kane after working on. Keeper and seeing how well they did on a. small budget. So, they saw it as a nice. fit. And that's when Kane showed him his. YouTube series. And unlike most projects. where world building is something. developed in like pre-production, this. world already existed. So, it wasn't. being constructed. So, that took a lot. of work off their plates. A lot of their. visual inspiration came from things like. 1 hour photo. And you can see in 1 Hour.

Photo and the blocking and how they use. the space how that really inspired back. rooms. but they also pulled from bigger. references in general because this is. already an established world, just not a. traditional, you know, cinematic one. So, they spent a lot of time studying. Reddit threads of liinal space. photography, looking at what. specifically made those images feel off, and how to recreate that sensation in. live action. It also is important to. remember that this is Kane's very first. liveaction feature, and Cox has. mentioned that Kane approached it very. directly and happily, even while. acknowledging that translating something. so fully done in Blender into physical. production came with a steep learning.

curve. Kane has always been drawn to. film, but the shift from total digital. control to real world constraints meant. negotiating scale. In contrast, and to a. traditional cinematic sense, no one on. that team wanted the back rooms to feel. glossy or pristine. The goal wasn't to. create something overly cinematic, but. to build a film that kind of resists. those expectations while also still. functioning as like a coherent film. piece. So, a lot of the process became. about figuring out a simple question. How do you make something that refuses. rules still feel like a film? And how do. you take something familiar and make it. feel unfamiliar? And that answer.

actually starts with the architecture. Production designer Danny Verette and. director Kane Parsons built more than. 30,000 square feet of backroom sets. across four sound stages. Even their. crew needed signs to navigate this maze. Parsons had already spent years building. these spaces digitally in Blender and. created even more for Verette before. building a single set. That was because. this movie wasn't meant to give you a. new version of the back rooms, but to. build off his original work published. all those years ago. So, this honors the. fan base and expands upon it for the. movie. But recreating the back rooms. isn't enough. The movie still has to.

trap us in that same way that Kane's. videos did, but for 2 hours. And it. needs that same locked in pressure. So, the spaces aren't just here to look like. the back rooms. They start supporting. the story itself. It isn't just a maze. where Clark wanders through. The film. suggests that the space is constantly. absorbing fragments of the people who. pass through it. Their memories, their. anxieties, their architecture. Thus, it. becomes a world that feels familiar. without ever being identifiable. Every. corner, every hallway feels like it. belongs somewhere but nowhere at the. same time. Kane has talked about how. liinal spaces remind us of fragments we. barely remember. The texture of a. wallpaper in a relative's house, the.

shape of an archway, a waiting room, a. strip mall, a carpet pattern you've. forgotten but somehow still recognize. Tiny details that aren't important. enough to remember consciously but never. fully disappear. And the original. backroom's image kind of works for the. same reason. It's not a haunted house. It's an ordinary space photographed. poorly. The white balance is off. The. colors are distorted. Nothing about it. is intentionally designed to be scary. However, it's still very unsettling. Vertt has said that they're creating a. world where rules don't apply. And so he. was very careful to make sure that they. weren't just doing things because they. could. And the goal always was to.

establish recognition first, then it. unravels and you start to realize then. everything's off. And that's where The. Back Rooms differs from something like. The Shining. The Overlook Hotel was. built to feel disorienting. It creates. anxiety in a controlling and impossible. way. While back rooms creates anxiety. through recognition, it isn't asking you. to enter a strange place. It's asking. you to wonder if you've already been. there before. So the architecture feels. less like a location and more like a. collection of memories. is just stitched. together. And once the film convinces. you that the space belongs somewhere in. your past, it becomes much more easier. to get lost in it. And while the. architecture creates that anxiety, the.

camera really traps us inside of it. It's June. There's a lot going on from. graduations to Father's Day and big. summer plans. It's easy to look around. and feel personally diminished because. it looks like everybody else is having. the time of their lives. And that's not. a great feeling to sit alone with. But. today's sponsor, BetterHel, makes it. easy to have somebody with you who's. trained to listen and help. My therapist. has pointed out in the past that unless. you're really close with somebody, most. of what you see of other people's lives. is just the highlight reel. It's a super. cut of the best bits. And especially if. you spend a lot of time on social media, it feels like there's thousands of. people living it up in Tokyo or at a.

brunch while you doom scroll your way. through a night of stress induced. insomnia. But that's not how things. really are. And it's really helpful to. have somebody with you to point that. out. BetterHel can help connect you with. a therapist who is always with you by. making therapy accessible wherever you. are, whether online or through the app. If you take a short quiz, then get. matched with a licensed therapist. quickly. You can communicate however you. feel comfortable. Phone, video, or text. If the therapist isn't a good fit for. you, you can switch at any time with no. additional cost. That said, 82% of. BetterHelp clients recommend their. therapist. Click the link in the. descriptions or go to.

betterhelp.com/newstars. to get 10% off your first month of. therapy because no one should have to go. through anything alone. BetterHelp is. here with you. The camera work continues. to behave like the architecture where it. becomes part of the story, supporting. the story visually and just trapping us. at the same time. And Jeremy has spoken. about how the back rooms forced him to. rethink his own instincts as a DP. The. back rooms allowed him to have framing. deliberately offc center, slightly. short-sighted and asymmetrical. Because. there's so much uniformity to every. location in the movie, you instinctively. want to deviate from that. So, there's a. visual imbalance as well. There's a lot. of wide angles that make the characters.

feel and look smaller while. simultaneously allowing their. environment to like dominate the frame. So, it's a weird visual where the space. is massive and still somehow feels. claustrophobic at the same time. Even. when characters are standing directly in. front of us, the environment feels like. the real subject of the shot, which. feels important to the heart of the back. rooms where exploring the space has. always been encouraged, but you would. never actually find answers to them. The. camera will at times move like it's also. another character in the movie, peeking. around corners before our characters get. there. It lingers on empty rooms, and we. get to see and study the place before.

they even enter it. Cox shot the film on. a Sony Venice using a Rialto extension. system, which separates the sensor from. the camera body and allows it to fit. into incredibly tight spaces. That meant. that the camera could move through. impossible corners and awkward angles. inside that maze, making you feel rooted. in that environment. And that makes. sense because the camera often feels. subjective, as if we're kind of. remembering a place rather than. physically exploring it. And despite. being a studio film, the movie never. completely abandons the found footage. that made Kane's original video so. great. They remain wide, the camera. remains curious, and our attention is.

constantly pulled towards the. environment rather than the people. inside of it. The found footage is. arguably the best part of the YouTube. series, and Kane keyframed all the. movements for handheld in Blender. And. according to Jeremy, some of the hardest. stuff to operate was the handheld work. because you had to act as if it was an. accident, but also hit the key beats. They were shot in Red Komodo, and. there's additionally VFX in these. segments. And after all the VFX was. done, they printed it onto VHS. So. everything feels just as aesthetically. viby as the original image in the. YouTube series delivered. Yet, architecture and cinematography aren't. alone in making the back rooms feel oh.

so wrong. You might have noticed a. stinky putrid tone and smooth varnish. that would put smooth Spongebob to. shame. Across every version, from that. single image to the YouTube series with. Blender to the big screen, color and. lighting have been really important in. shaping its atmosphere across all forms. of media. But what makes it really. unsettling is just how profoundly flat. it is to me. There's no contrast, no. shadows in the traditional sense, of. course, and it's not that cinematic. lighting that you might be used to, but. it's also very common in A24 movies. It. feels designed to look not designed and. the color grading pushes that even more. and is perfectly just imperfect in the.

same sense. Where it's normal for movies. to use color theory to reflect different. atmospheric changes or maybe a character. state of mind, backroom uses its colors. to be more disorienting and just very. uncomfortable. Outside in the real world. in the movie, there's this cold or like. blue tone over everything, which isn't, you know, unheard of. It's showing a bit. of detachment from the world that we're. about to enter. Inside this new world is. sickly yellow and fluorescent and the. opposite of inviting. The warm tones. throughout the movie from the occasional. lamps should feel comforting. Instead, they appear during moments of confusion. and feel more rancid than warm. They.

went as far as to test different shades. of yellow and photos of different skin. tones to find the right balance. So, we're seeing how color wasn't even only. an aesthetic bonus, but where they began. fine-tuning that distortion vibe. And as. most fans know, watching the original. work, Kane really succeeded in building. a great sound design around his videos. On top of creating music for the. original short films, Kane had also been. expanding the soundsscapes for back. rooms into a standalone albums that. weren't shared in the series, but still. allowed fans to pull more information. from. The score helps you identify the. area and works like a compass in a way.

It doesn't only support emotionally like. most scores do. It helps guide you. It. reorients you in a way where the music. isn't just here on top of the picture, it's helping you see it. Kane. co-composed with Ido Venman, who also. composed the score for Keeper, which he. worked on with Back Room's DP, Jeremy. Cox. Arguably, this movie sounds more. like just regular sound design than a. score. It's at all times responding to. what's happening or how people are. reacting. It was less about creating a. thematic score and just maintaining a. consistent like sonic environment that's. very fluid and behaves in its own way.

And that blur between sound design and. score is really interesting in this. movie because it's full of like. atmospheric audio cues and it feels so. constant. You don't know whether it's. playing to us or just living in the. movie. And there's no clear separation. of what is real and what is not. Essentially, we stop tracking what is. music versus what is the environment. because both are operating under the. same kind of logic. So, when you look at. all of this together, the architecture, the cinematography, the lighting, the. sound, it starts feeling like a system. It takes so many moving pieces to. control and support any film. But. technically, there's so many reasons for.

the back rooms being different from. traditional movies of its like caliber. Nothing in the back rooms is designed to. fully disorient you immediately. It. starts with familiarity. Spaces that. feel almost real, frames that feel. almost balanced, lighting that feels. almost natural, and then piece by piece, that familiarity slips. And that's what. makes it work. Because the film isn't. asking us to understand the back rooms. It's asking us to move through it the. same way the characters do. Constantly. searching for something that confirms. where we are without actually ever. getting there. So, when you ask, why. does the Back Rooms movie look like. this? The short answer is it's designed. to be disorienting, but in a way that's. built on familiarity. and that comes.

from a series of very specific technical. and sometimes psychological choices that. create unease and discomfort and. ambiguity. Together, they preserve the. original feeling of discovering the back. rooms online for the first time while. also expanding it into a world you can. actually explore and get lost in. Comment down below with your thoughts on. the movie and how you felt about the. vibe because I know it's very alluring. and I know it's very cool. And a special. thanks to one of our YouTube members, Paulo Bianca, who supports us at the. executive producer level. A big thanks. to Studio Tech Brian Kim behind the. cameras. New Rockstars editors Joshua. Steven Herd and Abby Fel and all the.

other supporting editors for their work. on this video and all of our videos. Follow me at Lulu Clement. Subscribe to. all the channels in the New Rockstars. Network for breakdowns and news coverage. of everything you love. Thanks for. watching. I'll see you guys later.