Kane Parsons now holds the distinction of being the youngest person to have a number-one film in the box office. Parsons is only 20-years-old and his film made $81.4 million domestically in its opening weekend and $117.9 million worldwide. He's the latest of YouTubers who have found success in theaters. When he was a teenager, he started posting videos on YouTube under the name "Kane Pixels." He was only 16 when he began a series called The Backrooms (2022), which was his interpretation of a creepy-pasta on the Internet. His videos went viral, garnering millions of views. Hollywood then came knocking and several companies jumped on board to produce a feature-length version of what Parsons has been doing with the young YouTuber at the helm.
One of those companies is 21 Laps Entertainment, which was founded by Shawn Levy. Levy has produced and directed a lot of film and television. In terms of cinema, Levy directed Night at the Museum (2006), which was about a man who essentially becomes trapped in what could be called a liminal space and strange things start to occur, including being chased by creatures. Levy would again work with creatures, as the producer of Netflix's Stranger Things (2016), which is about people who go through a magic portal into a parallel universe that could also be described as a liminal space where they are stalked and at times chased by creatures. Given all that, it's not surprising that Levy or his company would be behind Parsons' production, as it's essentially a riff on the same basic premise. It's arguable that the basic premise of a person being transported through a portal to a fantasy land that possesses danger goes all the way back to Alice in Wonderland (1865), the novel by Lewis Carroll. The question then becomes what happens once the characters are in that parallel universe or liminal space. Parsons' answer is what if it were just nothing for most of it.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange and 12 Years a Slave) stars as Clark, a man who owns and operates a furniture store, presumably somewhere on the west coast of North America. He's currently in therapy. The reason he's in therapy has to do with his divorce from his wife. One night, he discovers a portal into some place connected to his furniture store. It's not just hidden architecture. He knows that the portal is either magical or supernatural in some way. Instead of calling the police or any kind of authorities to explore it properly and potentially safely, he decides to do so by himself or with the help of his inexperienced and unsuspecting employees who look like they're probably only college-age. Of course, bad things happen. Those bad things mostly include looking at urine-colored walls and hearing disturbing noises.
Parsons is able to generate a creepy vibe to this creepy-pasta inspired narrative. However, a lot of it is simply empty rooms with perhaps scattered furniture or clothes. However, as one explores it, the space becomes echoes or memories that are often frozen in place. It suggests that Parsons is going to make some grander statement about memory and how it haunts or affects people. Yet, other than saying memories haunt people, there's nothing more to Parsons' statement here. It's clear that Clark is haunted by his recent memories of divorcing his wife and the memories of the pirate videos he creates as commercials or TV ads for his store. It's not great wisdom. Of course, a man would be haunted by his divorce. Given that working at the furniture store isn't his dream of being an architect, it's obvious he would be haunted by that as well. He lost his wife and his career. Yes, he's bothered by that, but what else does this film have to say about it? The answer is not much. We see Clark making drawings that range from floor plans and blueprints to MC Escher designs. Those things come into play in the eventual horror in this film, but not as much as one would think, at least not as it relates to Clark.
Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value and The Worst Person in the World) co-stars as Mary Kline, a doctor who is the therapist having sessions with Clark before he finds the magic portal. We see her memories in flashback to when she was a little girl, dealing with some issues surrounding her mother. There isn't much clarity to any of it. Yet, in a sense, she was trapped in certain rooms when she was a little girl. This will echo in the present when she also discovers the magic portal and goes into this film's version of the Upside Down from Stranger Things. The film will in fact switch perspectives and point-of-view to that of Mary. The first half of the film is squarely in the perspective of Clark. Yet, after the pivot point, his character disappears or gets shoved to the background, so we can follow Mary exclusively.
It's at this point the film feels like it was adapted from an episodic series. Parsons' debut unseated Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) as number-one in the box office. People criticized The Mandalorian and Grogu for feeling episodic, as if two or so episodes of the series from which it was adapted were slammed together. Parsons' film here is also adapted from a series, a web series, and the same criticism is what I would levy against it. The Ejiofor section is one episode and the Reinsve section is another. Reinsve's Mary, in how it ends, feels like it's setting up for continuing episodes.
I will say that the section involving Mary is one that was not as engaging. She doesn't spend as much time in "wonderland" so to speak as Clark. Clark does spend a lot of time on the other side of the magic portal. He's able to enter and leave the alternate universe fairly easily, but after a point, he seemingly becomes trapped there. How he survives should have been something the film depicts, but it's rather skipped over to go to Mary and her brief exposure, which doesn't amount to much. It results in revealing what the monster that dwells in the alternate universe looks like, but it provides no more insight into the psyche that created it. By the way, the so called monster is supposed to a representation of Clark, a Black man, but the actor playing that character is White, so is Robert Bobroczkyi doing blackface?
Rated R for language, some violent content, and bloody images.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 50 mins.
In theaters.
