My Theory: Mary Is The Real Protagonist, And The Backrooms Are A Schizophrenic Episode

I know this theory goes completely against the established Backrooms lore and probably isn't what Kane Pixels intended. Honestly, I don't even want it to be true because I'd rather the Backrooms be a real place within the story. However, after thinking about the movie, this interpretation makes more sense to me than most of the theories I've seen.

My theory is that Clark isn't actually the protagonist of the story. Mary is.

Early in the film, we learn that Mary's mother suffered from schizophrenia. Since schizophrenia has a strong hereditary component, I think this detail was included for a reason and wasn't just background information.

Mary is presented as a psychologist, but I think there is another possibility: what if she is actually the patient?

Throughout the movie there are moments where Mary seems unusually familiar with concepts that should be completely unknown. When Clark talks about the mysterious place that nobody understands, Mary reacts almost as if she already knows about it. Looking back, this feels strange if she's just an ordinary outsider being introduced to the mystery.

Once Mary enters the Backrooms herself, many scenes can be interpreted differently if we assume she is experiencing a schizophrenic episode while being treated in a psychiatric facility.

For example, there are several moments where she appears restrained in a chair while someone speaks to her. Rather than being a prisoner of some strange dimension, this could simply be medical staff trying to communicate with her during an episode.

One scene that stood out to me is when Mary hears the "Clark entity" approaching. She becomes increasingly anxious, and at the same time the female entity nearby begins panicking and trying to escape. This could be interpreted as Mary herself becoming distressed or potentially dangerous, causing the staff around her to react.

The strongest piece of evidence for me comes from the confrontation in the "store" area. Mary fights the Clark entity and severely injures its leg. Immediately afterward an alarm sounds and a gas is released that causes her to collapse. When she continues trying to resist and escape, more gas is deployed until she finally calms down.

Viewed through this lens, the scene resembles medical staff sedating an agitated psychiatric patient rather than scientists containing an interdimensional threat.

Another detail I found interesting is what happens afterward. While being transported to meet the lead scientist, Mary sees people treating the injured Clark entity. If Clark actually represents a doctor, orderly, or staff member she fears, then this could simply be hospital personnel providing medical treatment to someone who was injured during her outburst.

She also sees the cardboard-like figures watching her through a doorway. Most viewers interpret these as bizarre entities, but they could just as easily represent doctors and staff members whom her mind is distorting into something unsettling.

The final conversation with the head scientist is what really convinced me that this interpretation might work.

The scientist explains that his company previously worked on technology related to reading or interpreting brain activity before eventually dedicating itself to studying this place. Most people take this literally and assume he's talking about the Backrooms.

But what if he isn't?

What if the "facility" is actually the result of research into understanding how other people perceive reality? In that case, Mary isn't discovering another dimension at all. She's a schizophrenic patient whose distorted perception allows researchers to observe and study a completely different experience of reality.

The scientists aren't exploring the Backrooms.

They're exploring Mary's mind.

This would explain why the environments, entities, and events often feel dreamlike, symbolic, and emotionally driven rather than following the more consistent logic of the original YouTube series.

I don't necessarily think this is the correct interpretation, and I actually hope it isn't. But the more I think about it, the more scenes seem to fit surprisingly well into this framework.

What do you guys think? Am I reaching, or does this explain some of the movie's stranger moments?