Backrooms

When one of a therapist’s patients disappears into an ill-defined dimension that belies reality, she follows suit to rescue him and finds an opaque, half-glimpsed, Gen-Z screen nightmare. If you’re looking for something completely different, this one’s for you, a prototype for a new genre of Internet-spawned horror that thrives on atmosphere and ambiguity.

Kudos to both Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve for making this ambitious yet threadbare feature debut by 21-year-old Kane Parsons (aka “Kane Pixels”) work. And to the ultra-minimalist set designers. There’s almost no color or texture in this dimension, but a palpable feeling of decay and despair.

This mesmeric head-spinner is almost certainly headed for cult-movie status. Not for everyone, definitely not claustrophobes.  The ending was abrupt and shocking, but really the only ending that could have happened. (126 min)