From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

In article <mjp09gFrp84U1@mid.individual.net>,
Ted Nolan <tednolan> <tednolan> wrote:

Clearly the setting was the point of the video, and
clearly the viewer was supposed to know something about
it, which I did not, so I googled "The Backrooms", which
led me to a Wikipedia page and the explanation:

The Backrooms are a fictional location originating from a
2019 4chan thread. One of the best known examples of the
liminal space aesthetic, the Backrooms are usually portrayed
as an impossibly large extradimensional expanse of empty
rooms, accessed by exiting ("no-clipping out of") reality.

Internet users have expanded on the concept of the Backrooms,
introducing concepts such as "levels" and hostile creatures
that inhabit the space. In early 2022, American YouTuber
Kane Parsons started a series of Backrooms short films on
YouTube, which went viral. The videos have been credited
with igniting a surge in Backrooms content and taking the
concept into the mainstream. Parsons is slated to direct a
film adaptation of his series produced by A24.

...
...

Between 2011 and 2018, a photograph of a large, carpeted
room with fluorescent lights and dividing walls circulated
on various message boards, and on May 12, 2019, an anonymous
user started a thread on /x/, 4chan's paranormal-themed
board, asking users to "post disquieting images that just
feel 'off,'" accompanying the thread with the photograph.

Another user replied to this post, giving the image its
name and supplying the first description of the Backrooms:

If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality
in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms,
where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet,
the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background
noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz,
and approximately six hundred million square miles
of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in

God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby,
because it sure as hell has heard you

rCorCeAnonymous, 4chan (May 13, 2019)[1]

OK, so I looked up Parsons videos, starting with "The Backrooms
(Found Footage)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4dGpz6cnHo

and continuing with

Backrooms - Informational Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIFhglHn3W0

Backrooms - Motion Detected
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FDotUHfpWk

Backrooms - Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywVxpZ4XUBM

Backrooms - Presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITuGdHxHi0A

Backrooms - Lighting & Tile Survey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSWUEmJDglw

Backrooms - Static Dead End
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbPaWvqAEq4

Backrooms - Prototype
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_UN1dsZ9Vg

Backrooms - First Contact
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXdIDjzy6KY

Backrooms - Missing Persons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py6c5NaHeB8

Backrooms - Reunion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye6YpxFE9jk

Backrooms - Pitfalls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XwlWXtpaCM

Backrooms - I Remember
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-H59GkA-I4

Backrooms - Found Footage #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA5PxGHqpTo

Backrooms - Damage Control
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6klSI8GlXI

Backrooms - Overflow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TYopkSmKyA

Backrooms - The Third Test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TYopkSmKyA

Backrooms - Autopsy Report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AN6j7JYc1g

This is by no means all of the videos, and I skipped over
several long ones (on the order of 40 minutes), which I just
did not have the time or energy to get into.

However a coherent story emerges, told somewhat obliquely,
of a 1990s government contracting company, working with,
and to some extent leading on, the DOE with the ostensible
rationale of solving all the country's storage problems, and
following a plan with more Wile E level tenacity than sense.

There are continuing characters, ongoing plot threads, and an overall
sense of dread. The aesthetic is rather low-fi, consisting of 1990s
VHS/NTSC video from low-bidder cameras, which both works in-universe
and, I'm sure, saves on effects.

As I said, I have not watched all the videos yet, so I don't
know if it all comes to a climax and a satisfying conclusion,
but I have quite enjoyed what I have seen.

As I quoted lo those many months ago, Parsons had a movie to
come out. In case you missed it, it *is* out, and was apparently
the #1 movie last week.

Haven't seen it yet, but The Drinker likes it.
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