urban legend and creepypasta From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Backrooms is an urban legend started by a post on 4chan. It describes a large maze of empty red rooms.[1] The 4chan post characterized the Backrooms bits yellow wallpaper, the smell of moist carpet, and loud buzzing lights. The original 4chan post explained that people to fall into the Backrooms by “no-clipping”, which is a term used in video games in which things pass through a solid object.[2]
Since its creation, The Backrooms have been spread into other forms of media and Internet culture, including video games, memes, and a horror/science fiction web series.[3] Some people on the internet have added on to the legend of the Backrooms by adding additional “levels” and dangerous creatures known as “entities” that inhabit the Backrooms.
Some sources believe the Backrooms to have been the beginning of the internet's aesthetic of liminal spaces,[4] which shows usually busy areas as unnaturally empty.[4] The #liminalspaces hashtag has had nearly 100 million views on TikTok.[4] A TikTok trend of videos that zoom in on Google Earth to reveal an entrance to the Backrooms have grown popular.[5]
In May 2024, four people from Discord would eventually find the real location of the original Backrooms image from a photo taken back in 2003 in the WayBack Machine. The image was located at 807 Oregon Street, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The place was a small HobbyTown store.[6] According to the blog showing the image, the caption talked about a water leak that happened before the photo was taken:
"Above is the original view of the East (Oval) room. Notice no windows are visible? You can not see in the pictures the extent of water damage, but it was there requiring all of this material to come out."[7]
Since then, the space has been renovated into an RC track.[6]
The concept of the Backrooms has been made popular by internet users. Some have created different sections of the Backrooms called levels. There are thousands of levels found within fan-made Wikis of the Backrooms, such has different pictures and safety classes inspired by the SCP wiki. However, there are three distinct levels.[8] The levels in this canon include:
There are also many different levels. Many levels have been created by the Backrooms fanbase.
In January 2022, a short horror video titled The Backrooms (Found Footage) was uploaded to the YouTube channel Kane Pixels. This video caused the Backrooms to become popular again.[9] The Backrooms was an inspiration for Apple TV+'s Severance.[10]
In February 2023, A24 announced that they will be working on a movie about the Backrooms. YouTuber Kane Parsons is set to direct the movie. It will be based on his YouTube series about the Backrooms.
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