The Backrooms
The Backrooms is an urban legend and creepypasta that tells the tale of an endless maze of randomly generated office rooms. It is characterized by the smell of wet carpet, walls with a monochromatic tone of yellow, and buzzing fluorescent lights. Although Internet users have expanded upon this concept by creating different "levels" of the Backrooms, the original version came from a two-paragraph 4chan comment on a post asking for "unsettling images", where an anonymous user invented a story based on one of the photos. The Backrooms drew comparisons to various other horror trends and media, including Minecraft's Herobrine and the concept of liminal spaces. The location is also characterized by "entities", hostile beings created by Internet users.
Since its original creation, The Backrooms has been expanded into various other forms of media and Internet culture, including video games and YouTube videos.
Origin and description
The Backrooms originated from a thread posted on the /x/ board of 4chan on 12 May 2019, where an anonymous user asked for others to "post disquieting images that just feel 'off'." There, the first photo depicting the Backrooms was uploaded, presenting a slightly tilted image of a yellow-colored hallway. Another anonymous user commented on the photo with the first story about the Backrooms, claiming that one enters the Backrooms when they "noclip out of reality in the wrong areas," which is a video game-related term originating from Source Engine games for when a player passes through a physical boundary that would otherwise block their way.[1][2]
After the 4chan post gained fame, several Internet users wrote horror stories relating to The Backrooms. In addition, many memes were created and shared across social media, further popularizing the creepypasta.[2] Some have also stated they had seen that image somewhere before; in the opinion of Manning Patston from Happy Mag, these comments were "existential, hollow, and terrified."[2] Patston also commented on the use of the term "noclip", interpreting it as "glitches in which the walls of reality are torn down", such as the existence of doppelgängers.[2] Comparing the location to the level design of the Resident Evil franchise, Kaitlyn Kubrick of Somag News called the Backrooms "the terrifying creepypasta of cursed dreams."[3]
The location of the original Backrooms photo is unknown; although a number of locations have been proposed, it is also possible that the image is a procedurally generated digital composition.[4] The creepypasta has also been associated with the concept of kenopsia, first coined in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: "the eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet".[4][5]
Levels
The Backrooms' original concept has been expanded by Internet users, who have created different "levels" of the location. Although there are thousands of levels found within Wikis of the Backrooms, featuring different photos and "safety classes", the most accepted theory is that there are three distinct levels.[2][6] These levels are:
- Level 0 - "The Lobby/Tutorial Level": The level depicted in the original Backrooms photo, featuring all of the creepypasta's most well-known characteristics - moldy carpet, monochromatic yellow walls and buzzing fluorescent lights. One of the "entities" created by users for this level are "hounds", described as "disfigured, manic" humanoid beings that "should be avoided at all costs." Another feature of this level is a "noclip zone", which may lead one to come back to Earth, to be transported to the start of the level, or to "a new dimension" with other hostile beings.[2]
- Level 1 - "Habitable Zone": A level reached when one chooses not to enter a noclip zone and instead wanders around Level 0 for days.[2] It is darker than Level 0 and features a more industrial architecture, with mechanical-like sounds being heard through the place. The level appears to be a dark, dingy warehouse with low-lying fog and puddles of water around. [6] Opposed to Level 0, The fluorescent lights begin to flicker more frequently, occasionally shutting down completely - "This is when the beings come out".[2] Some have described the location to contain distant screams.[6]
- Level 2 - "Pipe Dreams": The third level of the Backrooms, according to the three-level theory.[2] It is the one of the darkest levels, containing more industrial-like architecture. This level appears as long service tunnels with pipes lining the walls. It is described as being reached when one simply wanders around Level 1 for a long enough period of time, and featuring a much higher temperature than other levels.[6] "Survivors" of the Backrooms claim that the only way to escape the level is to remain calm, stating that "Only when the backrooms have become your home can you depart."[2]
Reception
The Backrooms soon became popular from writers and Internet users, most of which commented on its uncannyness. The creepypasta has also been cited as the origin and most-well known example of the liminal spaces Internet trend, which are photos that evoke "a sense of nostalgia, lostness, and uncertainty";[8] the #liminalspaces tag has amassed nearly 100 million views on the social media platform TikTok.[7] When a woman named Claire Scheulin found an abandoned mall below her Airbnb, Internet commentators compared her photos of the place to the original Backrooms image.[9][10]
Patston compared the location to the conspiracy theories of UFOs in Area 51, to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's work The Shining, to the Minecraft urban legend of Herobrine, and to the 2019 film Us. The writer felt that even those do not "quite reach the uncanny valley" as the Backrooms, and concluded that "True horror exists with one foot in reality and the other dangling off a cliff."[2] Dazed called the Backrooms an example of "internet folklore".[7]
The Backrooms has also been compared to Everywhere at the End of Time (2016–2019), an album series depicting dementia using samples from the 1920s, some of these from The Shining. According to Marta Ferro of Italian news website Antropia, the Backrooms' hallways are similar to the ones from The Shining's Overlook Hotel, while the similarities to Everywhere come from the progression of unrecognizability that the levels of the creepypasta contain.[6]
Impact and popularity
Film
In January 2022, a short horror film titled The Backrooms (Found Footage) was uploaded to the YouTube channel of then 16-year-old director Kane Parsons (Kane Pixels on YouTube). It is presented as a 1991 recording of a teenager who accidentally enters the location, running from entities and entering other levels.[11] The film employs both live-action footage and 3D Blender renderings, as well as other techniques to create effects such as camera shake and a VHS filter.[12] Categorized by some as "analog horror",[13] the short received acclaim: WPST contributor Erica Russell called it "the scariest video on the Internet",[14] while Dread Central's Mary Beth McAndrews compared it to the 2019 video game Control and "watched it 10 times."[15][16]
Some were surprised by what Parsons did with what he had: Jai Alexis of website PopHorror was surprised by the director's age,[17] while The Awesomer noted that Backrooms "shows how to create tension without a budget".[18] Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza hypothesized that the creepypasta will eventually "end up in a slick but dismal 2-hour Hollywood movie", likening this prediction to the Slender Man creepypasta and its 2018 film adaptation.[19] When describing a meme of the Backrooms, GameRant's Tanner Fox called the short "a paralyzing watch which packs quite a bit of terror into its short runtime."[20]
Parsons has also uploaded seven other videos relating to the Backrooms in non-chronological order as of 4 November 2024: The Third Test, First Contact, Missing Persons, Informational Video, Autopsy Report, Motion Detected, and Prototype.[21][22] They revolve around the fictional Async Foundation attempting to reach the Backrooms to solve "all current and future storage and residential needs,"[23] with Informational Video referring to the location as Project KV31.[24] There are also two unlisted Backrooms videos uploaded by Kane, one of which references the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.[25][26] The creepypasta and the film series were one of the main influences for AppleTV+'s Severance.[27]
Video games
On 12 February 2022, a Reddit user showcased a Minecraft map based on the Backrooms' concept. As of 4 November 2024, the mod is still under development, with Screen Rant's Thomas McNulty claiming that "entities" will also be present on the map.[28]
The Backrooms has also been the basis for a horror game of the same name, released in 2019 by indie game studio Pie on a Plate Productions.[29][30] It was praised for its form of horror, with Bloody Disgusting writer Michael L Sandal comparing it to the works of writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman.[31] Author Sigma Klim of Guru Gamer felt the game is something unique amidst what he called the "cliché and overused motifs" of most horror content, comparing it to 2004's Yume Nikki,[32] while PCMag listed it as a "honorable mention" among a ranking of the "best free Steam games" due to its "unnerving" and "maddening" atmosphere "despite being an incredibly short title."[33]
Other released games based on the Backrooms include The Backrooms Simulator and Enter the Backrooms, released in 2019 and 2021 respectively.[34][35]
See also
References
- ^ "unsettling images". 4chan (4plebs). 12 May 2019. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Patston, Manning (3 August 2021). "The Backrooms: an eerie phenomenon lies behind these familiar hallways". Happy Mag. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kubrick, Kaitlyn (17 April 2020). "What is The Backrooms? The terrifying creepypasta of cursed dreams". Somag News. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b "The Magnet 0018: The quiet horror of procedural generation". The Magnet. 13 December 2020. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "kenopsia". The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d e Ferro, Marta (26 August 2021). "A JOURNEY INTO THE BACKROOMS". Antropia. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c Yalcinkaya, Günseli (14 April 2021). "Inside the uncanny world of #liminalspaces TikTok". Dazed. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Koch, Karl Emil (2 November 2020). "Architecture: The Cult Following Of Liminal Space". Musée Magazine. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Hollan, Michael (17 May 2021). "Woman finds out Airbnb is located above abandoned mall". News.com.au. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Santora, Sara (18 May 2021). "Woman Shares 'Abandoned Mall' She Found Under Her Airbnb". Newsweek. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Parsons, Kane (Kane Pixels) (7 January 2022). "The Backrooms (Found Footage)". YouTube. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Hellerman, Jason (1 February 2022). "'The Backrooms' Is the Viral Horror Short Shaking the Internet Up". No Film School. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Dennison, Kara (7 February 2022). "See Attack on Titan Through the Eyes of Backrooms Director Kane Pixels". Otaku USA Magazine. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Russell, Erica (17 January 2022). "'The Backrooms' Viral Horror Short Explained". WPST. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ McAndrews, Mary Beth (14 January 2022). "'The Backrooms' Is A Found Footage Nightmare Freaking Out The Internet". Dread Central. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ McAndrews, Mary Beth (7 February 2022). "Liminal Horror: 10 Movies Lost In Space and Time". Dread Central. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Alexis, Jai (23 January 2022). "'The Backrooms' (2022): A scary Found Footage Short That's Going Viral – Movie Review". PopHorror. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "The Backrooms". The Awesomer. 17 January 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Beschizza, Rob (1 February 2022). "Explore The Backrooms in this short found-footage horror flick". Boing Boing. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Fox, Tanner (7 February 2022). "Terrifying Pokemon Animation Shows What Haunter Would Look Like in Real Life". GameRant. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Phil (2 February 2022). "Cool Short Film Series: The Backrooms". Live for Films. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ McAndrews, Mary Beth (7 March 2022). "Disturbing Found Footage Sequel To 'The Backrooms' Dissects A Victim [Watch]". Dread Central. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Parsons, Kane (Kane Pixels) (14 January 2022). "Backrooms - The Third Test". YouTube. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Phil (13 February 2022). "Cool Short: Backrooms – Informational Video". Live for Films. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Parsons, Kane (Kane Pixels) (8 January 2022). "Mar11_90_ARCHIVE.tar". YouTube. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Parsons, Kane (Kane Pixels). "collateral.mov". YouTube. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Francisco, Eric (February 24, 2022). "Severance reveals the 'scary' and 'surreal' underbelly of office work in 2022". Inverse. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ McNulty, Thomas (11 February 2022). "Backrooms Minecraft Map Brings Terrifying Internet Meme To Life". Screen Rant. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "The Backrooms Game for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Johnson, Astrid (16 August 2019). "Reviews Roulette: The one with Tony Hawk on a unicycle (video)". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 24m57s. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Sandal, Michael L (30 April 2020). "'The Backrooms Game' Brings a Modern Creepypasta to Life [What We Play in the Shadows]". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Klim, Sigma (12 August 2019). "Test Your Nerve With This Eerie Title – The Backrooms Game". Guru Gamer. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Zamora, Gabriel (13 August 2019). "The 15 Best Free Steam Games". PCMag. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "The Backrooms Simulator for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Enter The Backrooms for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)