The Backrooms (+ Wiki) - Level 80085: The Kiwi Farms

[Wisseau]

Just looks like a crappy old building that's sitting empty. Not sure what the big deal is.

There was a video I watched a week ago where basically it theorized that people were afraid of the backrooms as a concept because it's like a fear of being forgotten. There's something about spaces that are meant to be occupied by people that look odd and downright creepy when all the people are gone (eg: airports at 3 AM) because it's not designed to be comforting and tailored to the human psyche, only to temporarily hold people while they work/get to their final destination.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

There was a video I watched a week ago where basically it theorized that people were afraid of the backrooms as a concept because it's like a fear of being forgotten. There's something about spaces that are meant to be occupied by people that look odd and downright creepy when all the people are gone (eg: airports at 3 AM) because it's not designed to be comforting and tailored to the human psyche, only to temporarily hold people while they work/get to their final destination.

Maybe it's because I've spent a lot of time in run down malls that I don't find the concept creepy.

Shit, maybe I should just go recording around the malls around here and make Youtube bucks.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

Maybe it's because I've spent a lot of time in run down malls that I don't find the concept creepy.

A very old job of mine used to take me to empty, dimly lit office spaces with sporadic background noises and the occasional wild animal scurrying by, and I did find those environments slightly creepy. Ironically it was more the very real and ever-present possibility that I wasn’t alone that did it.

 

[Wisseau]

Maybe it's because I've spent a lot of time in run down malls that I don't find the concept creepy.

Shit, maybe I should just go recording around the malls around here and make Youtube bucks.

There is a niche demand for urban exploring,

Any way, I'm not sure where the surge in interest in the Backrooms is from. Maybe it finally hit YouTube's algorithm?

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

I want to rip off Manhunt and find an abandoned mall and other places to do a web series based around snuff flims.

Too bad I'm a lazy shit with lazy friends.

 

[MugolEx]

I think the backrooms is overdone at this point. It went from a simple and to the point concept, to over explained and meaningless. The backrooms was kind of like a real life dev room so to speak that you could accidentally enter with no egress. Simple and effective. Now there are a thousand levels with no reason for existing other then to exist.

Anyone who has heard about this has probably seen the above video. If you haven't give it a watch. I was surprised to learn it was created by a high school student who was just fucking around with Blender/some VFX software in their free time. I think the entire thing is CGI, with some real elements edited in. Extremely well done IMO.

I like this kid's videos. He stays mostly true to the backrooms original inception while adding some of his own flare without overdoing things.

 

[DuranceVile]

I want to rip off Manhunt and find an abandoned mall and other places to do a web series based around snuff flims.

There was a web series and a (possible?) ARG called My Dad's Tapes that explored the whole weird snuff film idea. It started out really good and then fell flat on its face when the killer showed up and started talking about how good his margarita was.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

There was a web series and a (possible?) ARG called My Dad's Tapes that explored the whole weird snuff film idea. It started out really good and then fell flat on its face when the killer showed up and started talking about how good his margarita was.

If I did it, I wouldn't act in it at all so I wouldn't be tempted to be a faggot if it got big.

 

[Uncle June]

I used to think this shit was super interesting. The short skits and small bits of lore here and there really added to the mystique (like SCP used to be like).

Now, "influencers" and redditors have given it too much attention, added their own interpretations and made the lore a generic mess of lame explanations behind its existence where virtually all of the mystery behind it is now gone (like SCP now).

 

[threesquares]

This is just House of Leaves for zoomers who can't read. Great book, check it out.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

There was a video I watched a week ago where basically it theorized that people were afraid of the backrooms as a concept because it's like a fear of being forgotten. There's something about spaces that are meant to be occupied by people that look odd and downright creepy when all the people are gone (eg: airports at 3 AM) because it's not designed to be comforting and tailored to the human psyche, only to temporarily hold people while they work/get to their final destination.

I think adding monsters is unnecessary, just the idea of randomly glitching out of reality into a stranded area is disturbing enough (with the added long empty corridors) gives a good creepy vibe

 

[DuranceVile]

If I did it, I wouldn't act in it at all so I wouldn't be tempted to be a faggot if it got big.

Yes, the exact turning point for that series dying was a person showing up on camera and attempting to act. You don't want your supposedly erudite and evil serial killer to both look and act like he manages a Starbucks.

 

[HeyYou]

Backrooms is another great concept that works as something simple like a post on /x/ that got completely ruined by autistic zoomers making pages and page of "lore" on it and ruining what makes it creepy in the process. The Found Footage video is pretty impressive, though.

 

[JohnDoe]

This is just House of Leaves for zoomers who can't read. Great book, check it out.

House of Leaves is an interesting concept that drowns in its own pretentiousness and pointless meta-gimmicks.

 

[Cable 7]

Maybe if The Backrooms was alive like the house from Anatomy that'd be intresting.

 

[Crisis Acting Instructor]

These things are always interesting as emerging concepts, but as soon as they start becoming popular they are quickly ruined for many of the reasons already given here. I always try to just appreciate the concept and tune out the noise, we don't need a wikia for everything.

 

[do you like my hat]

It's annoying how things like this always attract lorefags, because "mUh WoRlDbUiLdInG" usually adds nothing to the original concept. A typical creepypasta mistake is assuming that more explanation = good writing.

Personally I think the Backrooms is creepier with no monsters in it: just an endless, lonely labyrinth of disgusting carpet and buzzing lights until you eventually go mad enough to bash your head against the wall. But I can understand why people are adding monsters for the sake of entertainment.

 

[Valstrax]

It's annoying how things like this always attract lorefags, because "mUh WoRlDbUiLdInG" usually adds nothing to the original concept. A typical creepypasta mistake is assuming that more explanation = good writing.

Personally I think the Backrooms is creepier with no monsters in it: just an endless, lonely labyrinth of disgusting carpet and buzzing lights until you eventually go mad enough to bash your head against the wall. But I can understand why people are adding monsters for the sake of entertainment.

I feel like that's my main gripe with how the Backrooms is handled: Adding too many "entities" and going too deep into it ruins the dream-like horror.

 

[Commander X]

Backrooms is another great concept that works as something simple like a post on /x/ that got completely ruined by autistic zoomers making pages and page of "lore" on it and ruining what makes it creepy in the process. The Found Footage video is pretty impressive, though.

That's what I really don't like about this sort of internet horror. The Slenderman was the first of these, various people for whom every detail of backstory and "world building" must be exhaustively cataloged on a wiki took a thin gruel and tried to make something more of it than it could have been. Not that I was a fan of the original, but it really should have stayed some images shared on the Goon forums on a thread.

SCP is another one of these, a basic idea that has become bloated and overdone, you know an idea has been done too many times when people start writing hilarious stories about the misadventures of their amazing original characters in the setting with quasi-Whedonian dialogue and lots of "random" humor.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

The one big mistake they are making with this "backroom" stuff is trying to simulate analog tape based recording. For 1998/1999, that would generally be inaccurate. Most people had camcorders that used DV at that point which was a digital format that didn't experience static (which is strictly an analog phenomenon) or dropout commonly seen with analog systems. Also given how they show them easily moving the cam around, etc... they are clearly showing a handicam/palmcam rather than shoulder mount analog systems and the handicam/palmcams were all digital. Shooting from a shoulder cam you would see significant movement along the X (horizontal) axis, but limited movement along the Y (vertical) and Z axis, but we clearly see the cam easily moving in all 3 dimensions effortlessly, so it wouldn't likely be a shoulder mounted cam.

The video below is more representative of the DV quality of the 90's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EqlpoEIHEQ

You can see it is much more clear. No color blooming (which is another analog artifact), etc... It is quite different from analog footage.

This is also a good comparison, it shows Super 8 Film, to Analog Tape, to Digital Tape (DV), to HD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmjhXM7i_4g