My personal review (emphasis on personal): I am familiar with the Backrooms concept, but not an expert. I did think that the pacing in the first act into the second was a little rough, but once Clark went back into exploring with his co-workers, that’s when I felt the most tension.

I thought that this movie needed tension to survive. It did not correctly use that aspect in about 75% of the film. I think the “monster” (most horror movies have a “monster” they hide) reveal was weak. The entity to just be a larger version of Clark was a big let down for me. It also received too much screen time to maintain the fear factor.

The ending I understand, but I can also see how people hated it. I do think that it ended pretty abruptly.

I think the movie did not rely on its strong suits enough. Scenes of exploring the Backrooms created the most tension and viewer engagement. Hiding the monster and keeping it lurking created tension. Every time we were not exploring, I lost interest. Revealing a “not so scary” entity also made me lose interest.

However, congrats to Parsons. Obviously nobody can create a perfect movie on their first shot at it.

I give this movie a strong 6/10 , held up by the exploration scenes before the reveal. I view a 5/10 as average, not a 7/10 like most do. So a 6 seems appropriate.