By Juan Markos
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 7/2/2025
In recent years, there has been an obsession with online videos featuring whimsical scenes and seemingly empty places known as “back rooms.” These videos often showcase track homes, playrooms, airports, and corridors, and they have sparked numerous trends and discussions on Reddit. Many viewers claim to have experienced these spaces, speculating that visiting them may be akin to entering another dimension.
I found myself doomscrolling through these videos and hashtags like #backrooms a few months ago. They evoke a sense of nostalgia for me, reminiscent of life in the 90s, when things seemed less crowded and the decor reflected primary colors and simpler designs. I believe that today’s younger generation is particularly captivated by these visuals, but I feel they are simply tapping into memories that many of us share.
A film that resonates with this nostalgia visually opens to scenes of empty places, and I suspect that malls might someday be featured in these viral videos. The entire movie feels like it unfolds in one of these backroom videos. The narrator reminds me of “Wear Sunscreen,” a spoken word piece by Baz Luhrmann, not about sunscreen in this specifically, but about burgers and secret menus. For those who find the backroom videos strange or scary, this film may also seem odd or unsettling. However, for me, it is a nostalgic reminder of the late 90s.
In a memorable scene, the protagonist orders from the secret menu, and the attendant leads viewers into an actual backroom or a creepy basement where a bizarre pageant occurs. This portrayal of a service job, which may seem foreign to some, adds to the film’s charm. Ultimately, I found the movie cute and nostalgic, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I miss the 90s and would love to see a full-length feature that further explores this theme; I’m definitely left wanting more.
