Backrooms: The Liminal Space Between Character & Vibes

Shirleon & Kathryn join Melvin to discuss Kane Parsons’ silver-screen debut for his hugely popular web-series; Backrooms! How does Parsons handle the transition from in-world storytelling to omniscient camera storytelling? The web-series doesn’t really have character-driven narratives, so what do they think of Clark & Mary as the film’s leads? And most importantly… is it good? Tune in and find out!

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 37-minutes discussing The Mandalorian & Grogu’s shockingly awful 70% second-weekend drop-off against Obsession‘s generational box-office legs & Backrooms‘ incredible first weekend, and what this might signal for the industry (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• This is the first of Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” entries to be character-led, whereas the rest of the story has been largely ambient and abstract. How did it turn out?
• Rather than overloading the film with “lore-bloat”, Backrooms cleverly adds nods to fans of the web-series through background material, visual trickery, dialogue, and much more.
• Thoughts on the characters of Clark & Mary.
• When the film ends… are they still in the Backrooms?
• The correlation between the Backrooms and people’s consciousness.
• Clark’s pivot in the third act feels like it jumps the shark, but the gang still thinks the ending works.
• Talking about Kane Parsons’ appreciation of Valve and his impressive exploration of the deteriorating 90s aesthetic despite being born in the later 2000s.

Recommendations:

• I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall by Ben Farthing (2024) (Book)
• The real story behind the Backrooms (2025) (YouTube Video)
• People Still Live Here (2025 – X) (YouTube Series)

Backrooms is Rated R for language and some violent content/bloody images. It features Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Robert Bobroczkyi. Directed by Kane Parsons. Backrooms is available here.

Consider supporting Cinematic Doctrine on Patreon! As a bonus, you can gain access to a once-a-month movie poll where you decide a movie we discuss on the podcast, early unedited episodes of the podcast, and merch!!

Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

Cinematic Doctrine is available on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and other major podcast apps.