'Backrooms' and the Rise of the Institutional Gothic
by anarbadalov on 4/2/2026, 1:18:05 PM
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/backrooms-and-the-rise-of-the-institutional-gothic/
Comments
by: JKCalhoun
Dreams I've had (since a late teenager) have often taken place in some kind of architecture with infinite rooms, hallways…<p>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(?).<p>At the same time, memory being what it is, I worry that the reverse is true—that the game I write inspired the nightmares (and that I now miss-remember when they began, misattribute them to my teenage years).<p>There is at times a feeling of infinite possibility when I find myself in these places while dreaming. I always enjoy exploring new places and so a place with infinite rooms, hallways, floors is going to keep me busy.<p>When I learned of Kowloon Walled City, that caught my attention. I've seen too descriptions of the underground portions of Hong Kong that let you move from place to place without every stepping outside. The movie "Chungking Express" gives off that vibe…
4/2/2026, 5:02:50 PM
by: amiga386
The article has a screenshot of the Stanley Parable, but misses an opportunity to reference <i>Control</i> (2019) which is much more directly influenced by the "liminal space" concept, and imagines a non-euclidian space called <i>The Oldest House</i> at 34 Thomas Street (a reference to the brutalist, windowless AT&T Long Lines skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street, New York City).<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F74LLDhAhhI</a><p>It also very much ties in with the shared SCP universe, which itself has a number of Backrooms-like anomalies, such as SCP-3008 (<a href="https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3008" rel="nofollow">https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3008</a>), which is <i>like</i> a typical IKEA, except its maze of twisty passages run to infinity.
4/2/2026, 3:45:13 PM
by: nkrisc
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.<p>I’ve worked in a place like this that was well past its prime and though uncanny, it’s certainly not creepy.<p>The illusion of infinitely twisting, identical corridors simply doesn’t hold up when you’re actually in a space like this, but only works if you’ve only ever seen these kinds of spaces from a still photograph on the internet (which is why the audience for this sort of thing is too young to have ever experienced it themselves).<p>Yes, it looks exactly like the stifling, sprawling suburban office complex I once worked in, but then I also remember the feeling of walking out the exit into a beautiful spring day.<p>For me, the feeling these “back rooms” evokes is more akin to being in school waiting for the bell to ring so you can go outside and play.<p>It’s strange when your own mundane experiences are fodder for a new generation’s horror fiction. Sort of takes the bite away from it.
4/2/2026, 3:18:09 PM
by: c-hendricks
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.<p>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.
4/2/2026, 4:21:09 PM
by: whateveracct
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?)<p>So I like how the movie's plot seems to be similar as well.
4/2/2026, 3:08:58 PM
by: squeedles
Never got around to The Backrooms, but the follow on Oldest View / Rolling Giant series of videos are absolutely fantastic. It captures the tension between curiosity and dread perfectly, which seems to me what all of this fascination with liminal space is all about.<p>On a technical level, his work is brilliant. With no budget, he puts me in a CGI space that I really can't tell is CGI, and invokes all of the feelings that are familiar to anyone who has snuck around where they really shouldn't be.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oldest_View" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oldest_View</a>
4/2/2026, 3:27:24 PM
by: cjs_ac
> But one can imagine a different version of this scene: a future humanity similarly excavating remains of corporate hallways that have since crumbled, wondering what life could have been like at the turn of the 20th century. What might our strange office spaces look like to the humans of the 2100s? What might they eventually look like to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, who may only know these environments through the ominous “Backrooms” or the goofy hijinks of “The Office”?
4/2/2026, 2:29:12 PM
by: greenavocado
Arma Reforger military simulation game modders implemented backrooms with all of their psychological horror perfectly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLaq-5QqIYk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLaq-5QqIYk</a>
4/2/2026, 4:26:22 PM
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4/2/2026, 4:15:29 PM
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4/2/2026, 2:27:32 PM
by: DanDeBugger
[dead]
4/2/2026, 3:02:18 PM