Yeah so I’m balls deep in Darktide right now and there’s really only one channel that has explains the game well but also isn’t on the spectrum about it: Mister E.

Though this video is a full-on autistic breakdown of the classes, he’s entertaining about it. His psyker builds have literally saved me from hating this game.

Before I get into what I thought of Backrooms, you should check out the Nerd Alert analysis video.

Why yes, that is my partner, the beautiful and talented M and myself talking about Backrooms, I’m so glad you noticed! We plan on doing Nerd Alert fairly regularly so please subscribe to stay in the loop!

So, as I said in the video, I loved Backrooms. This is the first truly Gen Z horror movie and I don’t think I quite articulated that in the video. I mean that in the sense that Backrooms is about the actual anxieties of Gen Z and not the culture war interpretation of them. Every movie that has come out proclaiming to be Gen Z horror (or was at least ascribed that title by media) focused on identity politics. Like there’s a Boomer studio exec saying “All these kids are scared of getting called the wrong pronoun!” and boom, you get They/Them. Not to bash They/Them but just look at it’s cultural presence -or lack there of- compared to Backrooms. Or even the latest Scary Movie; The first joke in the trailer was a pronoun joke. That’s when I checked out because if that’s what they think all these kids care about then they are sorely behind the times. Guess what, kids don’t fucking care about pronouns. Like, AT ALL. My 10yo niece had zero issues referring to my partner as “they”. No questions asked, zero fucks given.

The reason Backrooms is hitting the zeitgeist right now is because it isn’t about surface-level culture war identity politics bullshit. It’s about class anxieties. There is a malicious presence in the world expanding and swallowing up all the resources all the while you are expected to contribute your 60 hours a week or else you will be destroyed. The Boomer generation built an infinite, ever expanding wasteland to sell at a profit and none of it is for you.

One of my favorite aspects of the movie is that the company exploring the backrooms, Async Research Institute, used to build things. Once discovering the backrooms, they can’t not use all available resources in an attempt to exploit the potential profit of free real estate. Like Microsoft and AI, even if there is only a .00001% chance the backrooms can be profitable, they have to take that risk. The number must always go up.

I can totally understand why the “scary monster” of the backrooms might turn some people away since it’s not a big scary unknowable beast. It’s literally an exaggerated memory of Clark’s lowest moment. Kind of how for some reason your brain will wake you up at 3am and be like “remember when you made an ass of yourself at that party” and you have that gurgle in the pit of your stomach. It’s that, anthropomorphized into a literal creature stalking you, preventing your from growing.

In a way, Backrooms touches on this paramount fear Gen Z: The fear of being cringe. If you step outside, you will be recorded. Dance at club? Recorded. Singing along at a concert? Recorded. The lowest points of their lives have the potential to be posted to instagram and have a million views on tiktok. Their very own Clark-Pirates following them through the rat-race of modern society.

Great movie.

** “Combo drugs” sound fun but, unfortunately, aren’t.

** Netflix and it’s 2nd season woes

** We used to be a proper country