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'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

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Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#91
post #8

I don’t really get the nostalgia angle as it seems as many of those who are into this kind of thing are too young to have ever been in such a space, let alone worked in one. I’ve worked in a place like this that was well past its prime and though uncanny, it’s certainly not creepy. The illusion of infinitely twisting, identical corridors simply doesn’t hold up when you’re actually in a space like this, but only works…

Day vs. Night are what makes the difference. The sprawling suburban office complex from the 70s was, like you said, just boring and a bit oppressive during the day. At night though, a sea of cubicles. Endless hallways. Nothing but blackness outside the windows. Lights are all on motion detectors so only your area is lit. And only lit for a time. Eventually you'd have to stand up to make the lights switch back on. And…

The zombie game Left 4 Dead had a great art direction where you’re outside in a city at night but because it is post-apocalyptic evening is lit from below instead of above as normal.

So instead of street lights you get fires in trash cans are whatever casting light upwards.

It’s creepy in the same way as someone lighting their face by holding a torch near their chin.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#93

The article has a screenshot of the Stanley Parable, but misses an opportunity to reference Control (2019) which is much more directly influenced by the "liminal space" concept, and imagines a non-euclidian space called The Oldest House at 34 Thomas Street (a reference to the brutalist, windowless AT&T Long Lines skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street, New York City). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI It also very…

I really want to play that game but I am bad at the genre and I got whacked by the first boss. I really like that creepy aesthetic.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#94
post #52

Dreams I've had (since a late teenager) have often taken place in some kind of architecture with infinite rooms, hallways… I wrote a computer game where a paper airplane flies room to room… It occurred to me that I was not indirectly surfacing this "endlessly scrolling building" that has recurred so often in what I suppose are nightmares(?). At the same time, memory being what it is, I worry that the reverse is true—…

For me it's cities—large, empty cities with little, if any, foot or vehicular traffic. Typically in the US or Australia and laid out accordingly, so not like Kowloon Walled City. But it's almost as if they're that way because my brain's "GPU" cannot render that many people or cars moving about. Sonetimes in these dreams I'm able to "teleport" to an interior location where there are people, and I'm fine. Of course, it…

Stray looks cool. Thanks. (I also suspect my daughters would like it.)

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#95
post #55

The article has a screenshot of the Stanley Parable, but misses an opportunity to reference Control (2019) which is much more directly influenced by the "liminal space" concept, and imagines a non-euclidian space called The Oldest House at 34 Thomas Street (a reference to the brutalist, windowless AT&T Long Lines skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street, New York City). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI It also very…

I mean if we're trying to source where "liminal space" started, I'd like to add Portal and Portal 2 into the mix. It didn't have the surreal, creepy components because jump scare horror games like Five Nights hadn't been popularized yet but the entire second area of Portal 2 where you're introduced to Cave Johnson and the older Aperture Science HQ is very much "liminal". If we want to go deeper , then I really think…

i think there's also a strong Lynchian influence to the liminal space aesthetic. Industrial spaces, flickering fluoresecnt lights, and a sense of unease that comes from dream-logic and shots that linger to emphasize emptyness.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#96
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's cities—large, empty cities with little, if any, foot or vehicular traffic. Typically in the US or Australia and laid out accordingly, so not like Kowloon Walled City. But it's almost as if they're that way because my brain's "GPU" cannot render that many people or cars moving about. Sonetimes in these dreams I'm able to "teleport" to an interior location where there are people, and I'm fine. Of course, it…

Stray looks cool. Thanks. (I also suspect my daughters would like it.)

Protip: The meow button works during cut scenes.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#97
post #65

The article has a screenshot of the Stanley Parable, but misses an opportunity to reference Control (2019) which is much more directly influenced by the "liminal space" concept, and imagines a non-euclidian space called The Oldest House at 34 Thomas Street (a reference to the brutalist, windowless AT&T Long Lines skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street, New York City). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI It also very…

I am also going to call out House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's a really interesting book that explores a house that is slightly larger on the inside than the outside. It explores a lot of liminal spaces and has a really interesting format in print.

The book itself is highly influenced by Borges

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#98

While the Backrooms movie trailer does make it look interesting, "Backrooms" / liminal horror / Skinamarink all have the same effect on me: nothing. I figure the split of people who find it scary vs those that don't is people who can "unscare" themselves. Like when I go into my basement at night, I can give myself the scare of "what if someone's watching ..." then go "nah" and I'm fine.

Skinamarink worked better as Heck. Shorter, too.

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#99

The article has a screenshot of the Stanley Parable, but misses an opportunity to reference Control (2019) which is much more directly influenced by the "liminal space" concept, and imagines a non-euclidian space called The Oldest House at 34 Thomas Street (a reference to the brutalist, windowless AT&T Long Lines skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street, New York City). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI It also very…

[deleted]

Re: 'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic

#100

The Backrooms have always reminded me of House of Leaves and the Navidson Record within specifically. (I think maybe that's a deliberate influence in the lore?) So I like how the movie's plot seems to be similar as well.

I think there's a bit of a convergent evolution House Of Leaves is similiar to Backrooms in a way - they represent the same kinds of horror but it's more like how Weird Fiction converged and inspired in the same way. There's a level of early slenderman there as well (in terms of a lot of the early slenderman horror being more about the horror of dreaming this entity into the real) I'd argue SCP Foundation is probably…

The Dionaea House is a better example that's in the same vein as House of Leaves but was Very Online for the time, considered one of the first creepypastas in retrospect, and predates the whole SCP thing.
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