Any child of the Y2K era won't fail to recognize the VHS video game aesthetic that serves as the distinctive trait of Kane Parsons' feature-length directorial debut, Backrooms. A subtle grain envelops the settings that the two protagonists, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a failed architect and discount furniture store owner, and Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), his kind-hearted therapist, appear in — suspended-in-time offices, shops, and parking lots — as their silhouettes traverse them hesitatingly.
Unlike the hazy environments depicted in the filmmaker's viral computer-generated web series of the same title, which Parsons first shared on his YouTube channel, Kane Pixels, aged 16, back in 2022, those of Backrooms still look and feel hyper-real.
