Main cast: Michael Imperioli (Daniel Hausman-Burger), Matthew Maher (Eli), David Pittu (Aaron), and Natalie Gold (Riva)
Director: David Gelb
Backrooms kicks off the 2024 “Huluween” event of American Horror Stories, although from what I understand, this and the rest of the episodes in this so-called event were originally planned to be part of the previous year package.
The episode is called such because it is supposedly inspired by the demiplane-like spooky place of the same name that originated as a copypasta at 4chan. It’s a maze of empty rooms… or maybe not that empty, as you’d stumble upon monsters and what not when you take a random turn while trying to get out of the place. The whole thing sounds like a premise in a developed-on-a-dollar survival horror video game, now that I think of it.
I have a bad feeling about the episode from the opening scene itself, when Michael Imperioli recites his lines like they used an AI to dub over his actual voice, uttering lines in a monotone that serve only as clunky exposition detailing to viewers how his character, Daniel Hauman-Burger, is a wealthy horror screenplay writer that has isolated himself ever since his 10-year old son went missing. It’s as if the son going missing and the subsequent failures to discover what happens to that kid are at the same level of bother as an unsatisfying lunch that he had the day before.
Somehow, Daniel then finds himself in the Backrooms, meeting various characters and spooks and I have to say, the whole place is a visually arresting and often creepy setting. This episode is basically the usual “dream within a dream within a dream” affair wrapped up in a different kind of wallpaper, but there is an elegant and graceful kind of macabre when it comes to the set pieces and the choreography of various scenes.
It’s almost as if this episode had been put together in a way for it to be conveniently sliced up for standalone TikTok teasers, hmm.
A big problem with this episode, though, is the lack of surprises even with the presence of a twist—a twist that I can see coming from a mile away because, from the way this episode had been structured, there is only one possible person behind the son going missing. Imagine my lack of shock when the identity of this person is revealed.
An even bigger problem is Michael Imperioli sleepwalking throughout the entire episode. As a result, the protagonist has zero screen presence or any trait to make him memorable. Daniel is practically a walking android at the brink of a malfunction, from the way he mouths his lines. He is the perfect example of the “Who cares what happens to this bland waste of space?” principle at work.
The lesson of the day, I guess, is that one should pick the actor playing the lead role in anything most carefully. Michael Imperioli is cute, yes, but while he may be aging like fine wine, but his acting certainly isn’t!
