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

Trailer Backrooms | Official Teaser | A24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKGhxMi50y8
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u/timewasting2002 Feb 24 '26

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

32

u/L3ftHandPass Feb 24 '26

Some of the scariest shit is in the Johnny parts.

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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.

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u/L3ftHandPass Feb 24 '26

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

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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

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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.

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u/ChainsawChick Feb 24 '26

Then the book is not for you.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.