{"id":3406,"date":"2026-10-17T21:41:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T21:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=3406"},"modified":"2026-10-18T14:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T14:17:19","slug":"reality-experiment-like-backrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/10\/17\/reality-experiment-like-backrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cReality Experiment\u201d Like \u201cBackrooms\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So I think at this point we\u2019ve accepted that technology is going to kill us all one way or another. It’s like we\u2019re playing an elaborate mind-game about which exact glitch will lead to our demise. After the much-deserved success of Backrooms<\/em> (2026) along comes The Reality Experiment<\/em> (2026), cut from the same techno-cloth. Plot setup: A kooky-haired British \u201cresearcher\u201d named Jeremy hires a group of college students to be his guinea pigs for his eponymous project. They meet in a nondescript office park of some sort, sit in a circle, and each of them has a small white ball with a buzzer atop it: At Jeremy\u2019s command they will all push the buzzer at the same time, receive a small electrical shock, and all of their \u201crealities\u201d will be altered or transformed into . . . what, exactly, is unclear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Reality Experiment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No spoiler alert here: I won\u2019t give it all away. Jeremy\u2014a research psychologist I guess you could call him\u2014is rather feckless and scatter-brained. Seaton Kay-Smith plays Jeremy and does a good job of investing him with personality, even when he seems a bit clich\u00e9 as the somewhat-ridiculous academic with extremely messy hair. The students are a mix of male and female, with the young woman Kelly (Livia Hendricks) emerging eventually as the Main Character. They push their buzzers simultaneously and voila, the world is not the same as it was before. One woman has a new iphone (yay). Another doesn\u2019t recognize the people in her Facebook page. The worst is Paul\u2014a rather hangdog chap\u2014who seems to have lost his wife and kids in this new reality. From that initial setup the rest of the film unfolds, and answers, various mysteries and subplots. It\u2019s all a bit like Backrooms<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Backrooms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As in\u00a0Backrooms<\/em>, the altered reality of their experiment takes a sinister turn. Once they change realities they can\u2019t get back to their original selves. They keep fiddling with the buzzer device (powered somewhat comically by two AA batteries) and rewarping reality to disastrous effect. Although it\u2019s as highly improbable as Backrooms<\/em> it does hold together well: After being skeptical of the film\u2019s quality in the first five minutes or so, I kept watching and was hooked by the mystery. Roughly three-quarters into it the story starts to weaken. When a giant duck appears and seems to eat one of the characters, it most resembles Backrooms<\/em>. But, as they say, \u201cAll is not what it seems.\u201d Is it a good movie? Kinda. I was hooked. The ending didn\u2019t quite make it for me, but there\u2019s a sly nod to what the power of consciousness can achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As in\u00a0Backrooms, the altered world of The Reality Experiment takes a sinister turn. Once they change realities they can\u2019t get back to their original selves. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[505,230,475,445,20,514,488,477],"tags":[557,86],"class_list":["post-3406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backrooms-film","category-a-i-apocalypse","category-british-films","category-horror-comedies","category-horror-films","category-implausible-movies","category-new-movie-releases","category-thrillers","tag-the-reality-experiment-film","tag-film"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t