Melonland's thoughts on The Backrooms?

[khaos]

echoing a lot of the sentiments already stated, i absolutely hate how gamified it's become and so many people totally miss the point on what makes it scary as a concept to begin with. it's not the entities, it's not the levels, it's the sheer loneliness and isolation in a seemingly infinite expanse of the same area over and over and over with no clue how to escape. it's feeling like you're being watched and wondering if any sound you heard was actually someone - or something - else, or if you're finally spiraling into insanity. quite literally like the hallways of the Spiral in the magnus archives.

i do like kane pixels' analog horror series, i greatly admire how it seems to have innovated the found footage genre with well made cgi and realistic camera movements and it's especially impressive for how young he is. but ofc i do hate the fandom it's garnered with people who still manage to miss the point entirely.

people compare what the backrooms has become to the SCP foundation, and while yes, there are similarities, the SCP wiki actually has pretty strict quality control on what submissions get approved. i have yet to see anything of the sort with any backrooms wikis i've seen LOL

[Swiftpaw]

I like liminal spaces and the unsettling feeling of nostalgia they have, and they're something my system actually uses a lot as reference images when describing our headspace because it fits that vibe.

I just don't think it would work as a traditional horror concept is more the thing. Liminal spaces at least to me work better when you think about it for longer and let the feelings ruminate, and it feels the same with the concept of the backrooms. I don't see why there needs to be a goal or thing to avoid in the backrooms when the horror comes more of it being an infinite maze.

Liminal spaces never really felt like "no-clipping through reality" to me either. To me it's more the kind of places you might think about in a fever dream or when you're half asleep, or like the jumble of memories you get when you can't clearly remember something or even when having a flashback. If there's any fear, it's like the fear that you might have as a child where you know you're not supposed to be alone in an abandoned building, but you don't understand what you're actually supposed to be afraid of.

I'll always still support being creative on the internet either way. I think people being able to contribute their own lore and ideas in way of a wiki is pretty cool, and I realize a lot of it probably comes from kids. I've seen kids come up with their own interesting stories based on liminal spaces or weirdcore.

[mahoroa]

I dont really have anything to say about it that hasnt been said. Good idea but it works best as a simple post with a lot left up to interpritation. Every time people add more and more "lore" to it just ruins that mystery aspect. Something something less is more, something something what you dont see is scarier than what you would see.

Anyways, I genuinely wonder where that image used is from. Im assuming its an edit in photoshop right? Maybe someone took a picture of their house before they moved in/after they move out and edited it? It def reminds me of how our old houses would look before we moved in.

[rinni]

Oh i love the backrooms... so much

The original concept is something i find quite scary, as isolation is a phobia of mine. If i stay home for too long thanks to something like online classes or a period of laziness for lack of a more positive word, i start to go a little crazy!! so an infinite expanse of just... nothing but unpleasant architecture is quite spooky! the thought of a place like that also brings up so many questions! who created it if not a higher power? of course the backrooms fall into the assumption of the whole simulation theory, no? idk! i think so! it's fun to think about!:ohdear:

the idea of 'something else' existing in the backrooms was present in the original post, but the idea of societies and like... exploration missions and such kind of ruin the vibe a little, yes. but there's a place for interpretations like those, of course! it's all in good fun! like the multiple canons of the SCP project!

i love things like the backrooms also... House of Leaves is one of my favourite books! (though i havent finished my first read of it.. aha ha...) and!!!!! and!!!!! The Spiral from The Magnus Archives is one of my favourite things ever!! maybe the authors were inspired by the backrooms? Im not sure if the timeline lines up, though... and of course Myhouse.wad is quite enjoyable by extension of it being inspired by House of Leaves...

[BartTheZech]

I'll probably end up repeating what was said before, but hey I'll give my thoughts.

The Backrooms is basically a type of liminal space. Honestly, I think I enjoy the concept of liminal spaces more than Backrooms due to how the Backrooms have currently shaped up.

I see some people have refered to it being gamified. I'd say that's a result of people wanting to turn this into a worldbuilding project similar to SCP. The gamifying aspect came up as since the term "noclip" was used so people decided it should be similar to a game with levels.

Now I do enjoy worlbuilding, it is fun, but the charm of The Backrooms initially came from the fact that we didn't know what was in this world. If you got in you might be truly alone in these nostalgic liminal spaces for god knows how long. Perhaps there was something following us but we'd never know. _{And if someone knew they'd never probably make it out...}

Heavy worldbuilding was wrong for The Backrooms. Why? Rules were established in a space whose charm came from the unknown. People love to explore so it makes sense this would happen but it ended up making The Backrooms "known." The sense of unknown and mystery is now replaced by a few SCPs, well not a few I think it depends on the forum where people go crazy with it. If it was treated as a space where people simply wrote unconnected short stories the mystery and charm would be there with everyone having an individual take. But since everyone went far into efforts to connect everything to one overarching universe of backrooms it's hard to act as if its a mysterious space. Especially with people going as far as to establish multiple research factions.

It is honestly a bit odd that I dislike this though, I found the infinite Ikea SCP fun and that's basically what the backrooms became. An infinite Ikea. Though It's not all that odd or contradictory of a thought as I see it as respecting these as two distinct worlds. One, the SCP universe where this sort of stuff fits in and then The Backrooms which sadly was stripped of its uniqueness to turn into just another Ikea SCP.

Now, on the topic of liminal spaces, I dig those. They're just as is, oddly nostalgic photos that maybe will make you feel comfy or off. I've taken like two photos of spaces I found liminal, the feeling of being in those spaces honestly just feels cool. Especially when its a photo of a space at night ; p. Maybe a thread could be started for liminal spaces since those are awesome (if a thread hasn't been started yet, I haven't checked.)

[KatKing]

i dont agree with people who say that the monsters made it so the backrooms were not scary because they arnt empty anymore. to me, its no longer scary because they offer an escape.

the first time i heard of the concept, it made me deeply uncomfortable to think of being stuck somewhere like that, with no hope of ever leaving. that is what scared me. monsters offer death, a way out.

[virtue]

So the first thing I want to say is just a very heavy-handed defense of the Kane Pixels series, directed not at the original poster but at some annoying people I've seen online being gate-keepy about it, because I think its excellent. I have absolutely no love for creepypasta. I think the 'point of the original screenshot' is silly, and an especially silly reason to dislike Kane Pixels' take on the concept. The original thing was impossible to expand upon in the first place, it simply stands on its own, and that's okay. Kane Pixels' series instead derives intrigue primarily from the humans exploring, not from the environment they're exploring. Just like how people call it a "liminal space", it appears in the narrative to act as little more than a means to drive a wedge between the researchers. Yes, there are things in the backrooms that "defeat the point" of the original concept but my argument is that it simply does not matter because Kane Pixels is obviously not trying to tell a story about anything the original concept of the Backrooms was based on or trying to convey.

I adore Kane Pixel's Backrooms and am deeply excited to find where it goes, and I personally have a lot of hopes about that. I expect the story to be a commentary the excessive commodification of things beyond our control, like land and water. That would be extremely interesting and firmly have nothing to do with the original backrooms concept, and I think that is absolutely a good thing. (To be clear, Kane could prove me wrong and just completely miss the mark, and that would totally ruin his series for me, but for the time being, I don't get the impression that's going to happen.)

On the other hand, if we're talking about the peripheral fandom-ification of the idea where children have just endlessly added a million random things as different "layers"/"levels", or perhaps the peripheral media from content mills that takes advantage of the success of Kane's series and the general popularity of the concept? Yeah its stupid, awful, and I don't like it, but that would be boring to write a post about lol. I think though that you should just recognize... its a thing that children do for fun. The monsters are silly and its all meaningless and for fans of Kane Pixels or the original concept, it is probably unspeakably cringey, but I just say let kids have their fun. Its definitely frustrating though that it muddies the waters and makes it hard to acquire an audience for more thoughtful art on the subject.

Anyways, I overall agree with your original post besides your love for the original idea, I just wanted to make sure its stated for the record that I think in the sea of dumb bullshit, Kane Pixels has succeeded in creating something excellent out of it

[cursedcalendar]

i like them!! 
a lot of my art revolves around liminal spaces sooooo yea!

[Paprika]

Not much to add to this topic, there's a lot that has been told already. I prefer the Poolrooms but I dislike the idea of entities being there. Feeling alone in an empty space seems perfect honestly, no need of jumpscares or weird monsters. While I'm not a fan of it I respect Kane Pixel's work a lot, establishing a proper lore and all, congrats to them ! I noticed that if there's too many human elements in a -rooms" I tend to dislike it, I prefer bare walls and floor. The ones going full survival with people gathering and everything isn't my cup o' tea.