What did yall like abt the movie and what didnt yall like?

Ill go first guys

For what I like, I really love the whole first half of the movie. Especially the first backroom scenes. When clark is wandering around there's so many unsettling noises, kinda like footsteps, making it eerie. Then when mary discovers the backrooms due to a fly, I thought that was super clever. The backrooms looked great, as did the still lifes. The soundtrack is awesome and if you're just looking for a weird, unsettling movie, this one's for you.

Now what i disliked. Firstly I feel like the movie wasnt scary at all. Unsettling yes, but I only jumped during the bird scare and the mom scare. I found this disappointing because the found footage clips have really really good jumpscares, and thats only amplified. The chase scenes also fell flat. In the yt series chase scenes are loud and intense but in the movie the monster was very quiet during chases, making it feel as if nothing was chasing you. I will say the scene in the Christmas scene was a perfect example of what they could have done more of. More found footage and more unsettling monsters moving in the dark. When the still life lady pops out, that is super creepy but we dont really get another vhs scene like that. Also I feel like we needed more vhs parts. Next the writing with the mom was a little weak, and while many fans are quick to defend it, their explanation suggest they didnt get it. The whole issue with her mom was that she was developing a pharmacy drug addiction and was entering a paranoid psychosis, which we can see when she covers the windows, peaks out nervously, and says "they are everywhere" she did not know abt the backrooms and wasnt involved with async because as we can see from the ending async wouldn't have let her go. Mary as a kid is forced to witness her mother's descent but cant do anything abt it because her mom wont change. This leads her to take one of their handprints as a memory and a reminder to stay focused on helping and changing ppl. This is why in the dinner scene she realizes she can't help ppl, cuz she already went thru the trauma with her mom, her mom was NOT in the backrooms. Now dont get me wrong the idea is beautiful, js not performed well. They dont really emphasize young Mary's desire to help her mom, we just see her upset due to it. They should have included a scene where maybe she tries to throw away the pills to highlight the desire to help. Secondly I think Clark's insanity could of had more build up. Like if only bobby and Kat fell down the hole, forcing clark to run away and deny accountability for bringing them there. This would have hinted at his inability to see himself as the issue and highlighted that clark was going on a violent path and abandoned ppl to warm up to him choking mary out, instead of doing it out of nowhere.

Another thing, I was hoping for more mindbending architecture. Like non euclidean spaces, or hallways that stretch or shrink in size, or having the walls slightly "breathe" while the pattern moves.

Overall, a super trippy movie with interesting lore. Ive been a backrooms since 2019 because I was obsessed with the 4chan post. I was pretty young but at the time the backrooms wasnt too scary, the weird entities came a lot later. I was just obsessed with liminal spaces and would spend hours looking at them with my sis on my gparents computer. And I LOVE kanes interpretation of it. So being a backrooms fan for this long, I have to love it. It just went a very different direction than I thought it would. I dont think of kidnapping and hostages when I think of the backrooms. But I have to give it an 8/10