"Backrooms" And The Internet Horror Boom (With Ryan Broderick)
6/4/20261 hr 36 min
This week we’re joined by the very liminal Ryan Broderick, proprietor of the great Garbage Day newsletter and host of the podcast Panic World, to discuss A24’s hit, Backrooms! Based on a 4-Chan thread, creepypasta, and web series, the movie has captured young filmgoers and its young director, Kane Parsons, has captured Hollywood’s attention. Compared to last week’s subject, Obsession, Backrooms is a much more ambitious blend of effects-driven horror: juggling mid-life ennui, childhood trauma, and corporate conspiracy against an endless fluorescent yellow backdrop. It turns out, men would rather go to the backrooms than engage with therapy. We discuss what works about Backrooms, what doesn’t, and continue our conversation about YouTube directors making the jump to Hollywood. Finally, we discuss the feel-good story of so many new films finding footing in the industry, and what might be next for Parsons and other YouTube crossovers. Next week, we’re getting shirtless and toyetic, with The Masters of the Universe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMarie Barty0:00
[theme music] From Blank Check Productions, this is Critical Darlings, a podcast about the movies everyone's talking about, one new release after another. Please welcome your hosts, Richard Lawson and Alison Willmore.
Richard Lawson· Host0:24
[applause] Well, thank you Marie Barty for that introduction, although I can't... I can hear Marie, but I can't see her. There's just this kinda blank wall in front of us.
Alison Willmore· Host0:34
So unsettling, and yet strangely melancholy.
Richard Lawson· Host0:37
It's almost as if she's in some sort of back room.
Alison Willmore· Host0:40
Mm.
Richard Lawson· Host0:40
[laughs] [laughs] So, there you go.
Alison Willmore· Host0:43
It's great. It's great.
Richard Lawson· Host0:43
That's good, right?
Alison Willmore· Host0:44
Yeah, no.
Richard Lawson· Host0:44
That's great.
Alison Willmore· Host0:44
It was, it was beautiful.
Richard Lawson· Host0:45
Um, hello. Uh, we're here with producer Ben Frisch, as always.
Ben Frisch· Panelist0:49
Good morning, Richard.
Richard Lawson· Host0:49
Hello, Ben. Um, and a very special guest who, um [laughs] I have, I've known about this guest for a long time. I think we only met in person actually somewhat recently.
Ryan Broderick· Guest1:02
No, we met at VidCon- Oh, we did meet at VidCon ... 2018.
Richard Lawson· Host1:05
So, so that's not recent at all.
Ryan Broderick· Guest1:06
At the pool.
Richard Lawson· Host1:06
Yeah, yeah. But we, we talked at a party- We did ... more recently than that.
Ryan Broderick· Guest1:10
We did, yeah.
Richard Lawson· Host1:10
Um, anyway. Uh, kind of a, a, an internet soothsayer sort of interpreter, uh, l- reader of tea leaves, Ryan Broderick. Hello.
Ryan Broderick· Guest1:19
Hello. Welcome. Excited to talk about, uh, this movie.
Richard Lawson· Host1:23
[laughs] Yeah. Well, so I wanna start with a kind of simple question for you, Ryan.
Ryan Broderick· Guest1:27
Mm.
Richard Lawson· Host1:27
Can you explain The Backrooms to us?
Unknown speaker1:29
[laughs] [laughs]