'Backrooms' turns online urban legend into thought-provoking horror until it gets lost at the end; g1 already seen

Few horror films in recent years have had as promising a start as "Backrooms: A Non-Place", which opens in Brazilian cinemas this Thursday (28). For that reason, almost no other disappoints so much in the end - thanks to a conclusion that gets lost in trying to be smart and indifferent, but that sounds a bit arrogant.
You can justify some of this due to the director's youth. At 20 years old, YouTuber Kane Parsons (also known as Kane Pixels) builds a tense and thought-provoking adaptation of the series he created on the video platform in 2022.
For the most part, the Hollywood newcomer shows tremendous potential. Undeterred by the two Oscar-nominated actors who lead his cast, he transforms the urban legend from internet forums that inspires the story into an absurd, claustrophobic and even somewhat charming plot.
Watch the trailer for 'Backrooms: A Non-Place'
Unfortunately, in the final minutes, he lets go of the maturity he demonstrated until then and gives in to instincts that smack of overconfidence.
Not every film needs an ending logical or a mega-elaborated explanation for supernatural issues as long as it respects the rules themselves.
"Backrooms" could end however it wanted, but, by introducing new elements only to ignore them immediately afterwards, it generates a most understandable frustration - which almost ruins everything.
Chiwetel Ejiofor in a scene from 'Backrooms: A non-place'
Disclosure
From the internet to Hollywood
The film is based on the urban legend started on the internet in 2019. Based on a photo of a corporate room with papers with yellow walls and carpet on the floor, the idea of an infinite extradimensional space was created in the same style, accessed by anyone who accidentally leaves reality.
"Backrooms" starts from this premise by portraying the encounter of the frustrated owner of a furniture store (Chiwetel Ejiofor, nominated for "12 Years a Slave") with the place - and the search for his therapist (Renate Reinsve, nominated for "Sentimental Value") after his disappearance.
The respectful but lean cast, helps maintain the audience's connection with the characters while the absurdity of the plot evolves along with the strangeness of the environments.
Ejiofor, always great, balances a very human weakness with a subtle aggression, indispensable for the discomfort desired by Will Soodik's script ("Ash. vs. Evil Dead") - and lays the foundation for Reinsve's most honest despair.
Renate Reinsve in a scene from 'Backrooms: A non-place'
Disclosure
The mystery versus the answer
But the protagonist of "Backrooms" is really the non-place of the title - and the atmosphere of sinister familiarity present in each room created by Parsons. The young man controls, like a veteran of the genre, the tension of the unknown behind every corner or under every crooked floor at a slightly unusual angle.
Together, acting and direction generate some of the most interesting moments in recent years in horror. The fascination diminishes exactly when the phenomenon begins to be explained. The answers are still of some value, but the mystery is much more attractive.
In the end, the debutant filmmaker shows an almost ironic parallel with his characters and gets lost in the infinite corridors of his own ambition.
Unnecessary parallel plots, which seem to be played only as a reference to the series, create expectations that are never fulfilled and that leave a bitter aftertaste in a plot that was so well embraced with ridicule.
Critical review card g1
Art/g1
Renate Reinsve in a scene from 'Backrooms: Um non-place'
Disclosure

Source: G1

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