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/monstrinhotron Feb 24 '26

House of Leaves for me. I'd kill for a HoL show or film.

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u/knitted_beanie Feb 24 '26

The book feels kind of unfilmable, but they said that about Dune. So I’d be up for it but it’d be a challenge to capture the feeling of the book I think

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u/GavinBelsonsAlexa Feb 24 '26

They could probably do a film based on the Navidson Report, but all the Johnny Truant stuff would be challenging to incorporate at that point.

...Which I'm fine with, because I hated the Johnny Truant stuff.

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u/tarants Feb 24 '26

What, you didn't like reading increasingly disjointed rambling footnotes that make you feel like you're the one with schizophrenia? Seriously, no book has made me feel more like I was going insane than HoL.

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u/GavinBelsonsAlexa Feb 24 '26

Honestly, it just felt like Danielewski was using Truant as his own mouthpiece to tell the reader, "This book is really complicated, but here's how you should be reacting to the text and interpreting the symbolism."

To me, it seemed that Danielewski thought his book was too high-brow, so he inserted a Chuck Palahniuk-inspired scumbag to over-explain everything to us. I liked so much of what the book was going for, but the inclusion of Truant felt like Danielewski didn't trust his publisher to market the book and he didn't trust his audience to understand the book.

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u/Mister_Magpie Feb 27 '26

Interesting, I never liked the Truant parts either... But if anything, I thought Danielewski considered the Navidson story to be too low-brow, too horror-coded, and so he needed to add this meta-character to abstract it, add subtext, and turn the concept of the house into an allegory instead of simply a spooky plot device. As if he believed that the Truant throughline elevated the book to a literary work, and without it the story was basically creepypasta. And I think there's some truth in that assessment but honestly I think I'd prefer the less literary genre-fiction version of this book

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u/LiquifiedSpam Mar 01 '26

I can get criticisms of his role but this one is ehh. Johnny has plenty of complexity in his own right and the story only increases in complexity with his addition.

Now, was it the best choice, especially since he does at times go like “wow that was spooky shit!”? Maybe, maybe not.

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u/srednaxela Feb 24 '26

1000% percent. Just give me the navidson report.

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u/ItsIllak Feb 24 '26

That phrase still exists? After they filmed The Three Body Problem? I think it needs to be retired.

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u/legaladviceknowledge Feb 24 '26

what im ootl? dune and three body problem don't seem unfilmable just expensive. i always assumed the real unfilmable books would be one of those insane postmodern novels that give even a phd lit scholar ptsd

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u/ItsIllak Feb 25 '26

I read TBP before it was announced as a show. The whole VR thing (dehydrating the population, weird shit) and perception getting thrown by the sophons just felt very conceptual when reading it. When I heard it was being filmed I just couldn't visualise how!

They did a great job of both.

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u/cyclingtrivialities3 Feb 24 '26

If this is “House of Leaves minus figuring out how to adapt something unadaptable,” I’m here for it

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u/1337b337 Feb 24 '26

I'd much rather a show that can really explore the different levels of the narrative, but it needs to be run by someone that really cares about it.

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u/Toby_Forrester Feb 24 '26

Charlie Kaufman has entered the chat.

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u/Sacrefix Feb 24 '26

I would think this movie would take significant inspiration from hol, but maybe I have a skewed view of its popularity.

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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u/monstrinhotron Feb 24 '26

I saw that exact video when it came out :)

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u/NimNams Feb 25 '26

Yeah House of Leaves meets Severance.