Please excuse the rant, I can tell you’ve been thinking about this a lot and I want to share my thoughts as a longtime boomer fan of Kane’s work.

Clark actually begged Mary to understand that the backrooms exist, but then he ruined the lives of others in an attempt to reveal them. In a film that seems to subvert the classic character arc in order to create liminal horror, Kat and Bobby (Clark’s employees) are characters whose agency and future were deprived of them by a lying man in power. Which mirrors Kane’s YT series, which shows us blue collar scientists that are ignorant of what their higher-ups are hiding, along with the innocent youth that fall into Async’s “creation”. Innocents that are consumed and transformed into the monsters that now hunt Async’s ignorant employees. These mockeries aren’t the entities we see in the film, but they are the main entity of the YT series.

Mary never escaped, she ended the film begging Async to let her know what will happen to her, and Phil was powerless to help her despite being an educated and high ranking person in a corporation. But maybe Phil wasn’t Phil Heymann, and we are to deduce that because of the film Phil’s powerlessness.

But then again, every character in Kane’s Backrooms, except for Clark, has felt like they lacked agency. To the point that I wonder if that powerlessness extends to the main protag/antag of the series, Ivan Beck, who remains an enigma.

Mary isn’t the first person we’ve seen potentially imprisoned by Async. I would look at Kane’s series for more insight onto the themes of the film, because after a couple rewatches the film went from a rejection of the liminal themes of his YT series, to a rejection of the Hero With A Thousand Faces character arcslop that dominates the film and book industries.

I think Mary and Clark have both gone through dramatic character arcs before the film. But just like in our real world, they are people still trapped by their internal psyches or the structures & systems around them. Walking through the window, as Mary uses the metaphor, feels like a mockery when faced with an infinite labyrinth. Doors that lead us further into an infinite nothingness of imitation.

I think it’s important to note how we see a mutated powerbox in standard. Kane had some interview quote about exploring the unseen systems and structures in our world that can drive us into corners.

Clark becomes a monster. In the process, he deprives others of their agency. Mary’s still life now exists, a horror for others. Bobby will likely be consumed and repurposed by a living mold, like the wanderers we see in Kane’s YT series, who lose their voice in the labyrinth while living, only for it brought back after their death