icily brilliant and genuinely disturbing conceptual horror film based on his web series<\/a>, and scripted by Will Soodik. There is something here of J-horror, the V\/H\/S found footage franchise, Dan Erickson\u2019s Severance and Nathan Fielder\u2019s The Rehearsal. It\u2019s about people walled up in their own memories, imprisoned in endlessly remembered scenes from their past, or miserably perceived versions of their present existences in which they have become caricatures of themselves, gargoyle stars of their paralysed inner world of failure. Or perhaps the action of the film is not metaphorical in this or any other sense, and the \u201cbackrooms\u201d of the title simply exist.<\/p>\nChiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve give barnstormingly good performances as Clark and Mary; it is the early 90s and Clark is a failed architect, separated from his wife, and an alcoholic who to make ends meet self-hatingly manages a drearily and eerily vast discount furniture store, called Cap\u2019n Clark\u2019s Ottoman Empire. He does dumb TV ads dressed as a pirate while uneasily aware he should be a sultan to make the \u201cOttoman empire\u201d pun work. He goes to see a therapist, Mary, a sad, gentle person who markets her own self-help audio tapes and is haunted by childhood memories of her abusive mother.<\/p>\n
Continue reading…<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/092ee6463c71fa2874f8a4e4247487b30c0cdace\/219_0_1284_1027\/master\/1284.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=fdbbd47bf9880689c79f99402247fa30\" "\\"Backrooms")
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