So I’ve heard the buzz about the new film Backrooms for a while, along with Obsession, the two breakout hits of the summer movie crop. I studiously avoided reading much about it, including reviews, so as not to be corrupted by other opinions. Now that I’ve seen it I do recommend that approach, as surprises are part of the fun. Or more particularly: The Mystery. In Backrooms the filmmakers do a good job of dropping hints and clues about what’s going on, without fully explaining it. If you’re a fan of psycho/surreal horror, you’ll love it.
I’ll do my best not to give much away. My perception of the movie, from the online buzz, was that it was this year’s Blair Witch Project (1999). Wrong. (Blair Witch had its makeshift charms, anonymous, inexperienced actors and limited plot: I remember seeing it at the theater and wondering, when it ended, “Is that it?”) No, Backrooms is professional and polished, despite its director being only twenty years old (and the movie’s “found footage” origins from a YouTube video). One thing I quickly discovered: It has knockout performances from the two main A-list actors: Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, the man who sets the plot in motion, and Renate Reinsve as Mary, who acts as something of a narrator and psycho-spiritual guide. (She was up for Best Actress in last year’s Sentimental Value.)
The best summer hits capture the nation’s zeitgeist, so in this way maybe Backrooms is this summer’s Jaws (1975), or better yet, Alien (1979). It’s a snapshot of what we fear: In this case, technology run amok. I read it as a metaphor for A.I., or A.S.I. (Artificial Superintelligence), although A.I. is never mentioned in any way. Various A.I. researchers and pundits have noted that even its creators don’t know exactly how A.I. works, how to “learns” and “grows,” exactly. Some of argued that is cause for great alarm—the folly of creating a super-powerful technology that we don’t understand and can’t necessarily control completely. Backrooms, however, is no jeremiad. In a nutshell, it’s freaky. Great visuals of empty rooms and insular creepiness. Supposedly it’s a play on “liminal spaces” and there is a not-exactly-here element to its reality: It’s something in between our world and the world to come. I’ll classify it as Psycho-Surreal Horror. Now to Obsession, a horse of a different color.
Obsession is more conventional. Its tagline captures that: “Be careful who you wish for.” It’s essentially a Love Story or a Love-Gone-Wrong Story. I’ve heard it’s interpreted by some as a metaphor for (romantic/sexual) “consent.” Maybe. But it doesn’t beat you over the head with that idea. Unlike Backrooms, the danger is not a technological one, but it shares a fear of the unknown product we can purchase that will change our lives in ways we don’t anticipate or understand. Michael Johnston plays Bear, the lovestruck lead, who pines for his “friend” Nikki (played by Inde Navarrette). Despite his bruin’s name, Bear is a nebbishy guy who can’t confess his feelings or pretty much act in his best interests . . . without some supernatural or divine intervention. Which goes terribly wrong. It’s another version of the classic Monkey’s Paw idea: Fulfilled wishes usually come with strings—or thorns—attached.