Short Film Research: The Backrooms

 Camera Angles/Movements: Through this film the camera was handheld, giving the first person POV the entire time. It serves to put the audience fully in the shoes of the cameraman. Movements were also shaky and slow, giving the sense of fear and anticipation. The monster shown is only featured from around corners, often at canted angles. The handheld camera style has been used in several horror films, most notably The Blair Witch Project, and is famed for its unique yet effective style.  

Sound: The minimal, yet purely diegetic sound used creates an incredibly immersive atmosphere. The sound motif used for the monster is a haunting moan and static, accompanied by the camera, our only view of the world, glitching. The lack of another perspective traps the audience and keeps them helpless when they hear the monster coming. Further, the lack of sound in most other moments leaves the audience in great anticipation and makes any future sound much louder and more shocking. 

Mis-en-scene: For this film, the costumes and make-up were extremely limited as the characters themselves were barely present. The friends from the start of the film are dressed casually or wearing a mask for the film they’re shooting. The monster may be a costume but could also be a puppet piloted on strings or a man with the features of the monsters attached over a green suit to be cut out in editing. The lighting throughout the film is an eerie florescent yellow, reminiscent of worn office buildings, filtered through the quality of the camera. There are moments of darkness, such as toward the end of the film as the camera man hides behind a corner, but much of the film is shot in bright, clear lighting, going against typical horror conventions. The bright lighting, however, serves to illuminate the lack of options or resources available. The acting, much like the costumes and make-up, is very limited. The friends from the beginning have quick roles, setting a casual tone while the cameraman does a good job later in the film adding short comments occasionally but mostly leaving the audience in silence. It leaves the audience to make their own conclusions about everything happening, as well as making them feel alone in the Backrooms. The prop use in this film was creative and sparse. The camera being held is the main prop, giving the world an older and grainy quality, but this film breaks horror conventions again by not including any murder or defense weapons. The monster itself may be a prop, its thin and tall frame being somewhat intimidating. Other scattered props were seemingly random and unhelpful, like the large garbage bin or the rows of short filing cabinets. These items decorate the set to be confusing and eerie. Speaking of the set, it may be the biggest pull for this film as it’s incredibly unique. The main set of The Backrooms is a supernaturally long, winding, random and eerie set of connecting hallways and pits all made from matching, stale, and repetitive yellow wallpaper, shown in the aforementioned stained florescent yellow light.  Its repetitive yet unpredictable nature keeps the audience confused and lost, the never-ending nature of it creates a hopelessness and trapped feeling, and the monotony of the wallpaper and lights makes the world seem cold, lifeless, and desolate. This mix of feelings has audiences gripped in fear and anticipation. 

Editing: The editing for this short has two simple techniques that make the world even more terrifying. The first is the grainy texture and low quality given to the film, showing age and lack. Audiences seeing the lack of clarity are kept in the dark with lack of good information, making them tense. The second trick is the hard cuts that jump between different locations in the Backrooms. These show passage of time and even lower quality. The abrupt stops and starts also keep the audience tense and left in anticipation for the next cut. 

Film examples:  

• The Blue Door 

• We Want Faces So Bad 

• Poor Glenna 

• Hair Wolf 

 

The best elements of Horror: A great horror film, much like this one, creates an enticing atmosphere of creepy and fear inducing elements. The scares add to the thrill factor and make for a fun ride through the film. We especially appreciate the careful sound design and score of horror films. Proper sound motifs add to consistent terror and tension in the film, something not done in many other genres. This film wields absence of information against the audience to keep them properly tensed and waiting for something to creep out from behind a corner. 

The worst elements of Horror: Unfortunate downfalls of horror fall in the possibly unrealistic nature of them if not done properly. If the main threat or antagonist does not feel or present a clear and significant threat to the cast, the audience will never believe it and feel bored through the film. The monster in this film, while accompanied by haunting sound motifs, is strange and not immediately intimidating. The thin, spindly form shows weakness that can be exploited and the awkward gait it moves in leaves much to be desired. It’s also true when horror films try to overplay elements to build fear, they can go too far and the scene or film itself can become too cheesy and easily take the audience out of the experience.