The Backrooms and the inevitable silliness of internet horror
Creepypasta transcends the millennial gaze.
Today’s newsletter column was written by our esteemed intern, Zack Weekman! And it’s not that scary, promise, unless you hate crusty office decor.
The Backrooms and the inevitable silliness of internet horror
Imagine one day waking up in an old, empty office building all by yourself, with nothing but the nauseating florescent lights to keep you company. No matter how far you run, what paths you find, or walls you break, you are trapped, completely cut off from the rest of society and stuck in an anxiety-inducing maze. Welcome to the Backrooms.
The Backrooms originated in 2019 (surprisingly recent!) with a 4chan post about pictures that feel off, but it quickly expanded into an internet ghost story known as a creepypasta. From there, it slipped out of reality and into an endless hellscape of a crusty-looking office filled with nothing. That creepypasta caught the attention of many other users, and now, this singular picture has drawn a large following with an ever-growing lore behind it.
The concept of liminal spaces plays a key role in the popularity of the backrooms. These spaces play off nostalgia and our brains’ blueprints of situations and settings known as schemas. Empty department stores, school hallways at night, and dimly lit, empty areas all give us this feeling of unease, because we are not used to seeing areas that are usually packed with people and things, empty and dimly lit, and the feeling of loneliness they leave us with are strangely fascinating.
The backstory of the Backrooms has been written by a group of writers reminiscent of the collaborative creepy writing project known as the SCP Foundation (which is another fun rabbit hole to go down, and honestly, we were shocked to learn the Backrooms weren’t originally an SCP).
The Backrooms are made up of different levels, each one using a different liminal space as its base for an inescapable, infinitely generated area. These levels also have different “entities,” such as smilers who live in the darkness and hunt light sources and deathmoths who are passive but spit acid at threats.
The backrooms have also been formed into an analog horror series by the YouTube channel Kane Pixels. This found footage series has found solid ground amongst people who enjoy other series such as Local 58 and the Mandela Catalogue.
The Backrooms are also a hit in the video game community, specifically among modders who play around with the map that a user has to navigate. But of course, this is the internet, and a lot of these modified maps use memes as their entities and rely on the belief that loud = funny. To be fair, it often is. Seeing a comically oversized PNG of Saul Goodman chasing you through the backrooms is pretty funny, but it can also be pretty scary when he randomly appears from around the corner with that dumb theme song playing.
And with that, please enjoy some here and here and here:
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For some people, the Backrooms have become a spiral into deep lore and nightmare fuel, and for others, it’s become a meme so steeped in irony you can’t help but laugh. It’s what eventually happens with everything on the internet — we meme it into oblivion. As a cope, the true fans will make jokes out of it and say how they are “just built different.” This is a fantastic piece of fiction that seems to have a little something for everyone.
*Editor’s note: I miss Slenderman.
Kelsey’s corner
Zack stayed with us for a few days, and while he was here, we watched tons of Wendigoon and Cody Ko videos on YouTube, as well the entire most recent season of Survivor. His For You page is absolutely filled with funny animal videos, which is a nice reminder that there are some universally lovely things online that will never go out of style. I miss having him here, but we talk almost daily, and most of the discourse goes down in the TikTok DMs, where his profile picture is a cool dog and mine is a picture of Britney Spears. Generations! They exist!
Keeping up with the content
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TikTok’s Latest Cringe Trend: Gen Z Critiques Their Former Selves (Wired)
Shein’s Rise Was Nearly Overnight. The Backlash Came Just as Fast. (WSJ)
They lost their families to conspiracy theories. Now they're finding others just like them on TikTok (Insider)
I Hate Viral True Crime Culture, But I Love ‘Only Murders in the Building’ (Jezebel)
AI Is Going to Put Posters Out of Business (Read Max)
Inflation is raising demand for affordable beauty dupes (Glossy)
Marcel the Shell is post-internet (Embedded)
‘The Golden Age of Thrifting Is Over’ (NYT)
What creators say separates TikTok from Instagram Reels from YouTube Shorts (Digiday)
The Anna Delvey Industrial Complex — and me (Insider)
Why TikTokers may face problems forming deep connections with fans, despite the platform's hold on Gen Z (Insider)
Buying into conspiracy theories can be exciting! And that’s what makes them dangerous (Neiman Lab)
Psychics and Tarot Readers Are Under Siege By Instagram Scammers and Online Fatigue (Vice)
Daily Harvest built itself on the backs of influencers. Now, some are turning on the company because they believe they were sickened by its food. (Insider)
I don’t think you understand, I’m obsessed
I read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and — of the 190 books I have read this year — it has stuck with me the most. And made me want to take up video games. What’s a girl with no hand-eye coordination and a sore losing streak to do?? I’m about to hit 200 books read this year so far, so the answer is … stick to reading.
From yours truly
Luh you bye! — Kelsey
This was a great read, loved the article collection at the end-- although I disagree with the subheading! I would say the back rooms had roots in Gen X, even!