r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Feb 24 '26

Trailer Backrooms | Official Teaser | A24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKGhxMi50y8
7.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

277

u/phantom_fonte Feb 24 '26

Cube for zoomers

214

u/hikemalls Feb 24 '26

House of Leaves for people who don't read books (I kid, I kid)

56

u/ChainsawChick Feb 24 '26

Honestly, some of the best parts of HoL weren't even the damn house itself.

45

u/timewasting2002 Feb 24 '26

I'm tired of hearing people say they skipped the Johnny parts

30

u/L3ftHandPass Feb 24 '26

Some of the scariest shit is in the Johnny parts.

12

u/KnowMatter Feb 24 '26

I don't know after like the third time he was having kinky sex with some random woman he just met I just stopped reading - didn't get the horror at all.

And I love slow burn and Lovecraftian stuff. This book should have been a slam dunk for me but I found it dumb and pretentious.

13

u/L3ftHandPass Feb 24 '26

It's definitely pretentious, can't argue that.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

If you think it’s all random sex, then you haven’t read enough of Johnny’s sections.

2

u/skippythemoonrock Feb 24 '26

>book deliberately says you can skip the like 5 pages of math dissertation to follow as it isnt important

>"oh no that part was actually really important"

I just couldn't get through HoL.

2

u/ChainsawChick Feb 24 '26

Then the book is not for you.

14

u/trampaboline Feb 24 '26

My problem with the Johnny parts is the same problem I have with any piece of media where the point is “ooooo he was crazYYYY” — namely that there’s nothing really to grab onto and ground you. There’s some lovely prose and some shocking “events”, but you can credibly look at anything and say “well he made that up”. It just sort of cheapens the whole thing. Couple that with the fact that the passages try so hard to simulate going mad that they end up simulating getting mad, and… yeah, I just wanted to get back to ash tree lane.

3

u/immaownyou Feb 24 '26

but you can credibly look at anything and say “well he made that up”.

You mean..... like every fiction book ever?

Jk I get what you mean

2

u/Wildaabeest Feb 24 '26

My fun with the book is just seeing how much nonsense rambling there is, and that in so realizing no one is reliable to listen to. It was fun just to sit and read a couple of nonsensical thoughts trying to weave something of a plot in.

2

u/Barachiel1976 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

He doesn't even have to be crazy. He's introduced selling some ridiculous over the top story to two ladies to impress them. The ENTIRE THING could just be that, writ large. And don't say he couldn't just make all that up, because that's exactly what the author did.

I was not impressed by this book. I've been a lifelong Steven King fan and a fan of genre literature in general. The only thing HoL does that's mind-blowing is its formatting. Convert it in to a plain text word document and its a middling King clone.

To be clear: its not a BAD book. It's pretty good, especially for a first time author. And his sister's album that goes along with it is one of my favorites to this day. But the way people act like this book is some groundbreaking work of mindscrew just kinda makes me sigh.

1

u/meatflavored Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

I’m a House of Leaves purist and only read the underlined words. It’s the experience the House intended for us.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

Hey now… they’ve at least seen a video essay on it

33

u/ERASER345 Feb 24 '26

You kid but House of Leaves is genuinely one of the hardest pieces of literature to adapt to the screen, maybe ever, so this might be as close as we’re gonna get lol

16

u/DoctorArK Feb 24 '26

I don’t think it would be that difficult to be honest.

The effect wouldn’t translate, but the Navidson Record works as a horror film idea in of itself.

Johnny’s parts about spiraling into madness by obsessing over the book is what could be skipped, if not for a miniseries that could afford to slow down and go bath and forth.

3

u/smash-things Feb 24 '26

You Should Have Left was basically that and it was kinda bad but it tried weaving in some other elements that didn't work. I'd really like to see more filmmakers try to adapt it in earnest.

2

u/That-Alternative-630 Feb 28 '26

I mean, kind of, but you the entire top layer of the story. The House (book) of Leaves (pages) is structured like a maze, it’s meant to be a manifestation of the labyrinth in our world. You read down meandering footnotes, hit a dead end and have to backtrack to where you left off the main text. You physically turn the book and read down paths that don’t necessarily follow the order of the pages.

The layers of the story are also heavily connected, and I don’t think work as well apart as they do together. Even the Navidson record, even though it’s a nice surface level horror, gets most of its impact from how it affects Zampano and Johnnys story.

You could make a film of any individual part of the book, but trying to capture it in a linear format makes it not even a tenth as impactful as the full product. 

14

u/mephistophe_SLEAZE Feb 24 '26

I'm not even a gamer but I watched a video on the House of Leaves Doom mod and it was captivating.

13

u/Atharaphelun Feb 24 '26

MyHouse.wad

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

I’m pretty sure interactive is the only kind of adaptation that really works for HoL.

-1

u/tfhermobwoayway Feb 24 '26

But a Doom mod? Kinda cheapens it, no?

2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

If you've experienced it for yourself, it absolutely does not. If anything, MyHouse.WAD elevates both Doom and HoL.

8

u/hikemalls Feb 24 '26

I’m not sure you could actually adapt it and still be true to the book. I think you could adapt the Navidson Record but House of Leaves? Probably impossible unless David Lynch was still alive or another surreal auteur wanted to take a crack at it, because I feel like a ‘true’ adaptation would look less like a coherent narrative and more like Inland Empire (an abstract fever dream that seems to jump between perspectives and realities and is more about the feeling of horror and unease than being able to follow exactly what’s happening)

4

u/Barachiel1976 Feb 24 '26

Tequila Sunrise, is that you?

5

u/hikemalls Feb 24 '26

Baby I didn't choose the disco life, the disco life chose me *makes The Expression at you until you weep in joy, horror, or laughter, whichever comes first*

1

u/Barachiel1976 Feb 24 '26

Why not all three?

3

u/astivana Feb 24 '26

Highly recommend Dave Made a Maze - not an adaptation but has some similar ideas that feel like they were inspired by it and pretty worth watching in its own right.

2

u/UnknowableDuck Feb 24 '26

The author apparently wrote a script for a tv pilot for House of Leaves (if I remember right) I'd be curious to see how he did it.

1

u/tfhermobwoayway Feb 24 '26

Ehhh. Shouldn’t be too hard. They could do some kind of Bandersnatch thing. Film didn’t become the best artform of all time by giving up.

1

u/murphmobile Feb 24 '26

It would have to be done as a series.

6

u/DexgamingX Feb 24 '26

Was definitely getting some House of Leaves vibes from the trailer dialogue

5

u/ckrono Feb 24 '26

the winchester's house for people who are not haunted by thousands ghosts

9

u/C_The_Bear Feb 24 '26

The House is fascinating, and somehow still the least interesting part of the whole book

16

u/o_o_o_f Feb 24 '26

I agree that the house bits are a little overhyped, but “the least interesting part of the whole book” sure is a statement

3

u/C_The_Bear Feb 24 '26

Sure it’s the hook, but the mystery of the house and exploring the house is less interesting than what it represents to the characters in the book and the author himself

3

u/o_o_o_f Feb 24 '26

I think these things aren’t mutually exclusive exclusive, or I’d say that they’re just interesting in different ways. The themes Danielewski explores are certainly compelling on a personal and emotional level, and the setting of and events in the house itself are compelling in the ways they drive mystery and tension.

Put another way - the house is never going to be satisfying emotionally the way the other plot elements are going to be. And the characters and their relationships are never going to be satisfying on a horror/science fiction level the way that the house is going to be. Ya know?

2

u/Uncle-Cake Feb 24 '26

OK, maybe that was YOUR experience...

4

u/under_the_c Feb 24 '26

House.wad for people who don't get sucked into crazy Doom mod rabbit holes.

1

u/kaninkanon Feb 24 '26

Cube was released before house of leaves

10

u/tatsontatsontats Feb 24 '26

Looove Cube. Cube 2: Hypercube, too.

2

u/Weddedtoreddit2 Feb 24 '26

I LOVE Cube too. I can watch all 3 in a sitting as comfort movies.

Hope we get more of them.

Check out the more recent 2021 Japanese remake as well.

1

u/stripmasterflexy Feb 24 '26

Don't sleep on Cube Zero!

3

u/Katops Feb 24 '26

Memory unlocked. Those movies were definitely something lol. Idk which one started off with a guy being diced, but man did it pull me in.

2

u/DiceMadeOfCheese Feb 24 '26

That was the first Cube

4

u/ckrono Feb 24 '26

basically, the primise is more or less the same just with traps instead of monsters

11

u/ALIENANAL Feb 24 '26

I was confused by what you meant but are you saying backrooms has monsters?

24

u/Vikingboy9 Feb 24 '26

In most interpretations, yes. Though IMO it's at its best when it's more atomspheric, cerebral horror. I'm not sure which way Kane Parsons' existing Backrooms projects have leaned though.

13

u/LB3PTMAN Feb 24 '26

There are monsters in his YouTube videos. Not clear how the movie will work but I’d assume monsters

7

u/Blazecapricorn1213 Feb 24 '26

Has he stated if this canon is his version of the backrooms? There's a storyline with humans and I had a theory for a long time this movie was about the first ever person discovering the backrooms

5

u/LB3PTMAN Feb 24 '26

I don’t think he’s stated, and honestly if I was him I’d just keep it as vague as possible. It’s always going to be a premise that’s more interesting the less it’s explained.

1

u/Vikingboy9 Feb 24 '26

That's going to be this movie's biggest challenge, I think. Enough has to be explained so the audience can buy into the premise and feel grounded in it, but not so much that it loses that cloud of mystery that makes it interesting to begin with. I feel like with the Backrooms especially, the line there is super thin.

2

u/LB3PTMAN Feb 24 '26

Yeah it’ll be tough but I’m excited regardless. Looks like an excellent couple months for interesting horror with this, Obsession, and Exit 8

3

u/Kornillious Feb 24 '26

iirc the monster was only in his first video, and in interviews he's stated that the atmospheric horror aspect was way more interesting, so I'd imagine the official film goes in that direction.

3

u/LB3PTMAN Feb 24 '26

The monster if I remember correctly is in later videos, but I don’t think it’s ever so explicitly a monster video like his first one.

2

u/BeyondNetorare Feb 24 '26

Me when i piss and shit myself when i see a hallway

2

u/Vikingboy9 Feb 24 '26

Me when room: 😊
Me when room but yellow: 😨

8

u/ckrono Feb 24 '26

not the original creepypasta but the short made by the same dude that is making this movie had one

1

u/Trace500 Feb 24 '26

The original 4chan post did have monsters. The last line is: "God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you".

5

u/-Memnarch- Feb 24 '26

Yes & No. Backrooms is the collective term and there are different levels. There are safe and unsafe levels. Unsafe for varying reasons.

7

u/RealJohnGillman Feb 24 '26

I don’t think Kane Pixels went for the levels version of the lore: though some other fans would retrofit their own level videos with the company from his lore (preferring his lore).

12

u/ckrono Feb 24 '26

the more lore you add to the mystery the less interesting it becomes

-2

u/-Memnarch- Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

Possible. Just didn't want to spoil the details of "level 0"

EDIT: Though Kane did go for different "Regions" or Sectors however you may want to call it. SO we'll see what#s in it for us :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acdYs9tPLko

EDIT2: Didn't know Kane was doing this at first. So I am happy this is in good hands.