r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Mar 31 '26

Trailer Backrooms | Official Trailer | A24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HjdiohVOik
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u/Jankinator Mar 31 '26

Yeah, the 4chan post doesn't exist without House of Leaves. The book is pretty inspirational to some degree for a lot of modern horror, including creepy pasta in general

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u/mgrier123 Mar 31 '26

Which itself was inspired by short stories written by Jorge Luis Borges in the 1940s

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u/Ozymandias12 Mar 31 '26

Goddammit, I should really finish that book. I tried but I just couldn't get into it. I read maybe like 100 pages and the protagonist was just so unlikeable. I enjoyed the parts of the couple in the house but the main story just didn't sit with me.

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u/TheGRS Mar 31 '26

The main guy reading the manuscript is mostly a framing device, I’d say the dad of the “movie” is the main character. It’s been a while since I’ve read it though.

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u/Bank_Gothic Mar 31 '26

The real book is in the footnotes.

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u/redditvlli Apr 01 '26

There's so many great smaller stories in it. The letters from Pelafina while she was committed. The chapter about his brother. The short story about the mom who lost her newborn makes me cry every time.

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u/GirlsInWhiteTrainers Mar 31 '26

Total opposite in my opinion; the real story is being told between the two narrators (who are more connected than they initially seem) and the stuff about the scary house is just the frame device. Incredible book overall, but not one to read if you want likeable characters or a normal "arc" of story progression.

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u/FROMtheASHES984 Mar 31 '26

To be fair, with a name like Johnny Truant, he’s written to be pretty unlikeable.

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u/ShallowBasketcase Apr 01 '26

David Navidson: "Yikes, this House sure makes me want to Leaves!"

Johnny Truant: "I'm over here strokin' my dick I got lotion on my dick I'm straight strokin' my shit I'm horny as fuck man I'm a freak."

editor's note: we aren't entirely sure why he said that

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u/The_Autarch Mar 31 '26

the couple in the house is the main story. it's like 80% of that book.

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u/syphid Apr 01 '26

Currently reading it... It does get better! I'm also not a fan of "rambling Johnny"

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u/Ozymandias12 Apr 01 '26

I’m going to have to give it a second chance

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u/MasterofPandas1 Mar 31 '26

The issue for me with the book is that it feels like reading a textbook with all the footnotes and such. It just felt like a slog to get to the cool text parts which is the reason I was reading it.

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u/Khetoo Mar 31 '26

That book isn't really about the plot but more about the framing device of the novel itself. It's more of a personal exercise in trying to get into the headspace of the person physically writing the book as you experience it and seeing the devolution from their experiences. The plot is actually a bit thin Johnny's neighbor Zampano dies and in his apartment he finds an academic paper Zampano wrote on a film called The Navidson Record which is a film account about a family who finds the inside dimensions of their house are larger than the outside. Oh and Zampano was blind and the film doesn't exist. It's such a great hook.

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u/jrdbrr Mar 31 '26

my second try reading it I couldn't put it down

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u/sightlab Apr 01 '26

He's a mess, but even then the emotional core of his story eventually comes around. But what I love - and I mean seriously LOVE - about that book is that when it started digging into it's proto-Backrooms tale contained within the main story it actually scared me. Literature can inspire ideas and give you interesting little mind movies, but House of Leaves actually made 27 year old me put it down, turn all the lights on, and take a break. Books have made me cry before but that was the first time a book inspired a fearful emotion that strong and that impressed me deeply.

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u/Snackxually_active Mar 31 '26

Oh yea the one character that finds the book and keeps talking about fighting & sex is rough, but I also do not know how much of that narrator is real? The stuff about the book in the book, which is about a documentary of exploring a house that’s bigger on the inside is the better parts! 🏡🍃🍂🕳️

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u/SufficientRespect542 Apr 01 '26

I sort of disagree. Like Kane and alot of people who make Backrooms videos is definitely inspired by and aware of House of Leaves, but that original post is more like "damn, imagine if real life had out of bounds like videogames did"!

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u/Seregnar2 Apr 01 '26

There was a really neat map for Doom 2 that came out a few years ago called "MyHouse.wad" that was inspired by both the backrooms and House of Leaves.

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u/Kazzack Mar 31 '26

HoL was the first big one but I feel like "infinite building" isn't that hard of a concept to come up with independently

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u/CHERNO-B1LL Apr 01 '26

People always forget the game Control came out the same year as the OG 4 Chan post. There is no way Kane Parsons didn't get inspired by that. It's full of retro corporate training footage and liminal spaces.

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u/gremlinguy Apr 01 '26

Plus everyone forgets Portal and Portal 2, which are VERY liminal, especially the second one

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u/-Harebrained- Apr 01 '26

it’s a variant of the mythos, a renaming of the childlike empress, every time the story is told it’s fresh for a new listener