The Backrooms
The Backrooms is an urban legend and creepypasta that was started by a post on 4chan telling a story about an very large maze filled with empty yellow rooms.[1] The Backrooms is known by its yellow wallpaper, the smell of moist carpet, and loud buzzing lights.
Some people on the internet have created more ideas about the Backrooms to add levels and "entities" living in them. In the original 4chan post, people are said to fall into the Backrooms by “no-clipping”, which is a term used in video games in which things pass through a solid object.[2]
Since its creation, The Backrooms has been spread into other forms of media and Internet culture, including video games, memes, and a horror/science fiction web series.[3]
Some sources believe the Backrooms to have been the beginning of the internet's aesthetic of liminal spaces,[4] which shows usually busy areas as unnaturally empty.[4] The #liminalspaces hashtag has had nearly 100 million views on TikTok.[4] A TikTok trend of videos that zoom in on Google Earth to reveal an entrance to the Backrooms have grown popular.[5]
Reception[change | change source]
The Backrooms idea has been made popular by internet users. Some have created different sections of the Backrooms called levels. There are thousands of levels found within fan-made Wikis of the Backrooms, such has different pictures and safety classes inspired by the SCP wiki. However, there are three distinct levels.[6] The levels in this canon include:
- Level 0: The level showed in the original Backrooms photo, featuring all of the weird and creepypasta's most well known features - moldy carpet, based on only one color yellow walls and buzzing fluorescent lights. One of the things created by users for this level are dogs, described as Hounds. Another feature of this level is a noclip zone, which can bring wanderers back to Earth's dimension, return them to the starting point of Level 0, or to another level with different entities.[6] This level is apparently infinite, with endless corridors and rooms. Some examples are as follows:
- The Pitfalls, a room with a large number of pits in the floor.
- A room, seen in Kane Pixels' video (See Popularity and Impact), which is made of a large number of cross-shaped pillars.
- The room as seen in the original 4chan post.
- Level 1: A level reached when one chooses not to enter a noclip zone and instead wanders around Level 0 for days.[6] It is darker than Level 0 and features a more industrial architecture, with mechanical like sounds being heard through Level 1. The level appears to be a dark, dingy warehouse with low-lying fog and puddles of water around. Opposed to Level 0, the fluorescent lights begin to flicker more frequently, occasionally shutting down completely – This is when the entities come out.[6]
- Level 2: The third level of the Backrooms, according to the three-level interpretation. 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. 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 a person's home can they depart. It is said to have entities that are more dangerous than those of Level 1
There are also many different levels. Many levels have been created by the Backrooms fanbase.
Popularity and impact[change | change source]
In January 2022, a short horror video titled The Backrooms (Found Footage) was uploaded to the YouTube channel Kane Pixels. This video caused the Backrooms to become popular again.[7] The Backrooms was an inspiration for Apple TV+'s Severance.[8]
Movie adaptation[change | change source]
In February 2023, A24 announced that they will be working on a movie about the Backrooms. YouTuber Kane Parsons is set to direct the movie. It will be based on his YouTube series about the Backrooms.
References[change | change source]
- ↑ "unsettling images". 4chan (4plebs). 12 May 2019. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
- ↑ McAndrews, Mary Beth (14 January 2022). "'The Backrooms' Is A Found Footage Nightmare Freaking Out The Internet". Dread Central. Archived from the original on 31 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
- ↑ Parsons, Kane (Kane Pixels) (7 January 2022). "The Backrooms (Found Footage)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 30 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Koch, Karl Emil (2 November 2020). "Architecture: The Cult Following Of Liminal Space". Musée Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021.
- ↑ Dirga, Nik (July 7, 2022). "WA island bunker image is a mysterious dose of fantasy". AAP Factcheck. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2023.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "The Backrooms: an eerie phenomenon lies behind these familiar hallways". Happy Mag. 2021-08-03. Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
- ↑ Dennison, Kara (7 February 2022). "See Attack on Titan Through the Eyes of Backrooms Director Kane Pixels". Otaku USA Magazine. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
- ↑ Francisco, Eric (February 24, 2022). "Severance reveals the 'scary' and 'surreal' underbelly of office work in 2022". Inverse. Archived from the original on March 5, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
