Some more thoughts now that I've let it sit for a bit
1. I wanna correct something I said in my review; this movie will still hold up really well if you have delved exactly zero into The Backrooms, *unless* you choose not to engage with the world it wants to show you.
I have seen a few reviews online saying the movie explains little -- and that's partially true, by which I mean the movie does a lot of subtle exposition that you need to then latch onto and decipher on your own. You need to "connect the dots" yourself, to put it simply. The movie will not talk at you about the things that make it interesting. You have to engage with it actively.
If you refuse to do that, the movie will, by all intents and purposes, feel dull and boring.
2. I would almost encourage anyone that wants to watch this to *actually watch the YouTube series as a primer for the movie*. The movie can stand well on its own, but the experience is *majorly* enhanced if you know what the movie's groundwork is.
This does not particularly feel like a standalone product *to me* -- it feels like something meant to be integrated into Kane's overall Backrooms universe and mythos. Having re-watched the full YouTube series yesterday, I can say with certainty that having that fresh in your mind will make the movie that much better.
3. Some of the narrative threads might feel poorly explored, but this goes back to my first point -- in my opinion, they are only explored enough to give you the tools to connect the dots yourself. To try to reason on your own why they're there and why they're being presented in that way. This movie asks you to do a non-insignificant amount of thinking. And I think that is good.
@UmActuallyShow hey so i know its an old ass episode but the picture in the Halloween Episode of a spider is a striped wolf spider and not a chilean recluse. Also chilean recluse can be found in california. None of the spiders shown are medically significant