The Backrooms
Have you ever been in a space that's usually occupied by a lot of people, but in this one instance it isn't? It's completely empty except for you, you might hear a stray noise or two, but its only you. Now imagine that, but with an old unused office space with rotting carpets. Then make it unnecessarily large and labyrinthine. You now have the original idea of the backrooms.
Backrooms?
Originally posted on a random thread on /x/, the original image was included with a short snippet of text:
—The original post |
At first glance this is a short and sweet little creepypasta, that leaves plenty to the imagination. Then like slenderman and the SCP Foundation before it, everyone wanted to latch onto it and make it their own story. In this case very literally as once a backrooms wiki was made people were self inserting themselves into the imaginary lore of the place, reddit usernames and all. The wiki is pretty much a bootleg SCP Wiki as well.
The original vs now
- In the original while a creature was mentioned it was never definitely stated whether it was real or merely a figment of the trapped person's declining sanity.
- On the wiki, the creature is very real and its more of a deal of how many of them there are and which creature it is specifically.
- While, there was only the one area of the backrooms, they decided the backrooms was actually a whole separate universe of empty forgotten places.
- It was originally a one person experience, now there are whole groups of people stuck in the layers of it, wacky factions too!
Ok, but why does this exist?
Some sections of the Internet have an odd obsession with empty areas, they refer to them as "Liminal spaces", the Backrooms is merely a product of this. A Liminal Space is just a fancy word for saying a place that has been abandoned or is abnormally empty of human activity. This also one of the side effects of a generation of people bored due to current circumstances.
Notable "Levels"
- Level 0- The original
- Level 9- An infinite suburb
- Level 10- Wheat fields
- Level 11- The endless city
- Level Fun- A large birthday party
- Level 33- Infinite mall
Media based on The Backrooms
There have been a few games based on the works presented in the original 4chan post as well as the information presented on the wiki. This section will only feature those seen on the Steam storefront, as games released on less known websites for games are beyond the scope of this page. Most only feature the first level of the backrooms and primarily are about escaping it without dying from insanity. Another had literally nothing to do with it at all only featuring empty corridors floating in a void. The only one worth playing is called "Enter the Backrooms" despite its shitty graphics and perpetual state of being a beta. It features the most content out of the bunch and is only a few dollars. You should still pirate it if possible though.
Other Games
- The Backrooms Survival- A randomly generated backrooms game with an arcade like system of trying to get a high score, with score being measured by how many floors the player can get through. New floors are accessed by ladders as opposed to doors here. Also features inventory management and different entities. Uses the overused PSX aesthetic. Recently added a multiplayer mode, which is unsurprisingly broken and buggy.
- Backrooms 1998- Uses a VHS filter and is more plot heavy than the others, while also featuring a unique monster. Has light inventory management and uses player mic input for the monster so it can track the player better.
Youtube Series
- Kane Pixels' Backrooms Series- Makes a unique story around the Backrooms where the place was created by scientists with funding from the USA government with the purpose of solving future housing and storage needs. While it is all CGI made video, its very convincing for the most part although later videos in the series do feature real human actors in it. Again, features a unique monster and additional backrooms locations for unlucky characters to explore. The channel can be found here
- Other Found Footage Videos- The first video in the above series was a "found footage" style episode, which then inspired several fan creations of a similar nature. Usually piggybacking off of established "lore" from the Backrooms Wiki.
Gallery
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Level 3
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Level 4
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Level 9
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Level 10
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Level 11
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Level 33
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The Backrooms give its insight on current events
See also
- Creepypasta
- Autism
- Mario 64 Iceberg - Similar amount of retardation.
- Iceberg Image Trend - Became popular around the same time.
- SCP Foundation
- Empty
The Backrooms is part of a series on Visit the Chans Portal for complete coverage. |
Featured Article October 20 & 21, 2021 | ||
Preceded by Spirit Halloween |
The Backrooms | Succeeded by Mario 64 Iceberg |