BACKROOMS

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts with a video tape from the 90s. An unseen scientist named Naren Warne (Avan Jogia) is wandering through a mysterious location known as the Backrooms, recording whatever he sees. There is scattered furniture throughout the vast, empty halls and rooms. Naren finds a room full of video and camera equipment and tries to radio for help. A seagull then suddenly flies in out of nowhere. Naren continues wandering until he sees some type of large, growling creature stomping towards him. Naren tries to find a place to run or escape, but he fails and gets attacked by the entity. The video then cuts out, as it was being viewed by Naren’s fellow scientists.

A furniture store owner named Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), of “Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire”, is struggling to keep his business afloat since he is competing with a different store owner. He visits his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), who herself frequently thinks about the destruction of her childhood home and her mother being institutionalized. Mary has Clark role-play with her the issues that led to him divorcing his wife, such as his alcoholism, which causes Clark to grow genuinely irate and bitter as he vents about his frustrations.

Clark tries to film a promo with his assistant manager Kat Taylor (Lukita Maxwell) and her boyfriend Bobby Roberts (Finn Bennett), but it goes wrong when a chair that Clark sits on breaks. Later, he deals with the store’s electrical problem and meets with an electrician. They go into the basement of the store and find the electric panel, but they discover three switches set up diagonally that seemingly do not connect to the rest of the store.

At night, Clark is shown staying in the store. The show he’s watching is interrupted by a video from the Backrooms before the TV goes out. Clark goes back into the basement and sees a bit of light coming out from behind one of the walls. To his surprise, he is able to pass through it and finds himself in the Backrooms. He wanders in shock throughout the area, coming upon a room with a cardboard cutout of a man, plus multiple voices speaking in different languages. Clark also sees several artifacts fused into the floor, and even finds Naren’s badge (but not his body). He then sees the creature from earlier, causing him to run until he finally makes it back to the store’s basement.

At a corporation called Async Research Institute, a scientist named Phil (Mark Duplass) watches a recording of Clark walking through the Backrooms.

Clark returns to Mary to tell her about the Backrooms, but based on his description, she thinks he is suffering from alcohol withdrawals. Promising to return with proof, Clark goes to find Kat and Bobby to recruit them for gathering research.

Clark puts up tape around the space to enter the Backrooms and shows Kat and Bobby what he found. They react with stunned surprise at the entrance but they follow Clark anyway. Bobby is tied to a rope and is lowered down into a space filled with discarded clothing, including a t-shirt he was wearing earlier, and some of it is covered in blood. Bobby then hears the growling of the creature and he quickly gets pulled up. The creature yanks Bobby back down and drags his bloody body into a closed space. Kat goes after him and gets separated from Clark, who tries to hide. He enters a room with a lit Christmas tree and sees two humanoid figures (known as “Still Life”) moving towards him. Clark then makes it to a room where Kat sees him from the other side of a wall, but he cannot see her. The creature then grabs Clark’s camera and moves toward him.

Mary gets a message on her answering machine from Clark, who says he is “never coming back”, which raises her concerns. Meanwhile, Phil is at home with his family when he sees a commercial for Clark’s store, and he looks surprised when he recognizes Clark.

Mary goes to Clark’s store to try and find him. She goes to the basement and ends up in the Backrooms. Mary ends up in a room with creepy drawings before Clark emerges. He then puts Mary in a headlock and knocks her out.

Clark brings Mary into a room that is recreated to look like a regular dining room, with poorly-created copies of other humans (the Still Life) occupying the space. Clark explains to Mary that everything in the Backrooms is something or someone “remembered”. Clark opens the fridge door, revealing Kat’s severed head inside. He then cuts off the scalp of the female Still Life to make Mary continue re-enacting his marriage role play, but Mary refuses and tells him that his wife left him because he’s so whiny. She eventually manages to talk Clark into letting her go since he wants to remain in the Backrooms. This causes the other Still Life to scatter since the main Still Life, the tall monstrous being, is approaching. It takes the warped and deformed appearance of Clark as “Cap’n Clark”. Clark tries to speak to it like a friend, but the Still Life chomps into Clark’s neck, killing him.

Mary runs away and goes through several areas in the Backrooms that are recreated to look like her old neighborhood. After running through a tight space, she ends up in a copy of the store’s lobby. The Still Life chases her until Mary breaks its wooden leg and then starts hitting it with a rock that she always carries (actually a piece of the driveway of her childhood home where she imprinted her hands). Mary triggers an alarm that sets off gas. She runs from the Still Life and back into where she originally entered the Backrooms, where she is found by scientists.

Mary is brought to an interrogation room at Async, where she is greeted by Phil. He asks her to confirm the things she saw, but she cannot begin to explain. Phil tells Mary that their company used to make MRI machines, but they shifted their focus after discovering the Backrooms and have been trying to map out the place. As Phil continues talking, his words drown out and Mary just has a light smile on her face.

Inside the Backrooms, more spaces based off Mary’s memories have been recreated, including a Still Life of her sitting in the interrogation room.

A furniture store owner named Clark discovers a mysterious extradimensional space in the basement of his store, known as the Backrooms. Clark brings his employee Kat and her boyfriend Bobby along to record what they see and find, but Kat and Bobby are killed by a mysterious creature that inhabits the Backrooms.

Clark's therapist, Dr. Mary Kline, goes to Clark's store after he had mentioned what he discovered and started behaving erratically. When Mary enters the Backrooms, she is found by Clark, who has already gone insane and wants to remain in the Backrooms. He has discovered Still Life, imperfect copies of humans created by the Backrooms. The large one takes its form as "Cap'n Clark", the persona Clark uses to advertise his store. After Clark lets Mary go, the Still Life kills Clark by biting into his neck. Mary flees from the creature and fights back before being found by scientists from Async Research Institute.

The lead scientist, Phil, gets Mary out of the Backrooms and explains what he knows about the place. Meanwhile, the Backrooms recreates things from Mary's memories, including a Still Life of her.