Odd and eerie, isn’t it? Yes, at face value with a dash of cynicism and logic it’s clearly an empty room and nothing more, but to others, it’s ominously known as The Backrooms.
Nearly fifty thousand users on Reddit are members of its own dedicated page, from the cultural impact and its uncanny intrigue, pictures similar to the one above have crept onto our screens and our social media feeds to make users wonder what is so significant about this digital folktale.
The Backrooms are realms that are “out-of-boundaries” of our reality, the physical real world that we occupy and exist in. It’s as mysterious as the Upside Down in Stranger Things or even as unsettling as the iconic Stanley Hotel in The Shining. The only way one can enter or accidentally find themselves in The Backrooms is by “no-clipping” into them. “No-clipping” is a video-game term and it’s when a player is able to pass through normally solid objects like walls and buildings. It gives a player the ability to enter inaccessible areas within game worlds.
The origins of The Backrooms go back to an anonymous user’s post on 4-Chan that asked for others to “post disquieting images that just feel ‘off’”.
I don’t know what’s weirder, the fact that this thread was created by an anonymous user on 4chan (out of all places) or the other being, the location where this original picture was taken is STILL an unknown mystery to this day!
The popularity of The Backrooms relates to another similar as-popular internet trend of “Liminal Spaces”. They are photos of places that evoke a sense of nostalgia, lostness, and uncertainty. Similar to the original 4chan picture, #LiminalSpaces has garnered a staggering 1 billion, yes, 1 BILLION views on Tik Tok alone. I remember this on Tik Tok that was on my For You Page of a user named Claire (@clair.scheulin). She shared her discovery of an abandoned mall BELOW her Airbnb and the comment section on this Tik Tok were quick to say that she was in The Backrooms. Her Tik Tok video has nearly 6 million views and 1.5 million likes.
Aside from the wild virality and popularity on social media, there has even has been a successful short film of The Backrooms. In January 2022, a 9-minute short film titled The Backrooms (Found Footage) was uploaded by a 16-year-old director, Kane Parsons. Parsons’s short film received critical acclaim being labeled as “The Scariest Video on the Internet” and being covered on Dread Central, an American website of Horror news, reviews, and interviews. Parsons’s short film has 19 million views, 1.1 million likes, and has amassed 913k subscribers on YouTube. The significantly cool thing with Parsons is that he uploaded 6 other videos relating to The Backrooms as of March 12th, 2022! Parsons’s YouTube videos and the internet lore of The Backrooms were the main influences for a new show on Apple TV named Severance.
Keeping Severance in mind, a YouTube video from “The Infographic Show” sums up perfectly why The Backrooms appeal to our human psyche, “it resonated with so many because it spoke of our existential nightmares. It’s a metaphor for the horrors of modern life… the ultimate horror isn’t a werewolf or a vampire, but a soul-sucking job”.
To end, I always found The Backrooms very interesting and that’s because of its atmosphere and vibes the pictures gave off when I first came across them on my social media feed.
Maybe it’s the aesthetic photographer or even the horror movie nerd in me, but I know one thing for certain is that I will always be curious and intrigued by the supernatural, the uncanny, and superstitious.
What do you think of The Backrooms? Have you heard of The Backrooms and Liminal Spaces before reading this? Would you like to see a Hollywood movie studio make a horror film about The Backrooms?
