Collector of pathetic fictional men

26 | queer

[stormbreath]

I really did like the ending of the Backrooms 2026, actually. The twist that the Backrooms is a space that you can physically exit but a part of you mentally will always be trapped in is a great subversion and really effectively inverts the concept. The main scientist character looks directly into the camera and reveals he is still caught in the same nostalgia trap that Clark was, stuck in a repetitive motion and going nowhere. Mary got out but she's still in there. You can leave but you can never escape

[starvariety]

i really love the motif of windows in Backrooms. mary’s book being called “the window within”. the curtains in her office always being drawn. the shot of her behind glass in her own home during the gathering at her house. clark looking through the window into his own house. him being unable to see kat through the glass she can see him through. the window in mary’s mother’s house. the windows in the hospital her mother is brought to that only look out to another building. the drawing that mary finds of captain clark reaching someone up towards a window. the fale window in clark’s “home” in the backrooms that just looks out to more of the same empty space. the window in the interrogation room that’s too high to see out of (and thus to determine if it’s real). the fact that the backrooms lacks any windows to a true “outside space”, and how terrifying that makes it. there is no window within. or, at least, not one that any of them can find

[starvariety]

a handprint made in concrete is just the image of a hand, it’s not the real thing. or, it’s the absence of a hand, more than anything, the negative space. the casing around where it should be. it’s an indent that was made from something real - that could not have existed without something real - but it’s not the real thing, it’s just trying to be. maybe it’s not even trying. you put your hand there with your mother and the concrete remembers, and the handprint doesn’t even know why it exists, it just does. if we can make copies and not-things from real things in the world, who’s the say the world couldn’t do that itself? does it even need to know why?

[spam-monster]

Iron Lung and Project Hail Mary as "men who persevere against impossible odds and find courage in the depths of despair"

Versus Obsession and Backrooms "men will willingly stay in a literal horror movie situation over confronting their mistakes and taking responsibility for their actions"

[sanguinesegasaturn]

honestly I don’t really think Mary was trying to “fix” Clark or “save” him she was a therapist and she was doing her job and how else are you supposed to respond when your client goes jack torrance mode like 8 levels deep into narnia. all these posts about how it’s so tragic to try and save someone who doesn’t want to be saved and it’s like. I don’t really think she even knew him that well like her whole relationship with him was “and how does that make you feel”

[spleensamples]

Reading through the replies and I still don't understand what you mean. Why is doing her job and saving him two different things? I thought the movie gave a very detailed reason as to why she thinks she could or wishes she could save people.

She tried to help her mother through a flawed system (I assume she called someone as a child and that was why her mother looked so betrayed in the scene she was wheeled away), and dedicated her life to that system in an attempt to understand more. Mirroring the organization trying to understand the backrooms.

Her inability to let go of that was symbolized through her carrying the handprint everywhere she went. When she used the same handprint to fight back against the pirate, that was her letting go. When she was listening to Phil describe his own purpose and use the same tactics she's been using to try and get her to talk to him, you can see the point where she became entirely disillusioned on her face.

In the first scene where we see her without Clark, the song ulterior motives is playing. It's a subtle way to say that her job always had a motive of her own. She felt like she failed her mother and that has always haunted her. She's trying to prove something. She wants to save others because she feels helpless. Her job and saving people are the same thing to her.

That's probably why she went to physically search for Clark instead of calling in. That's unprofessional behavior. That's not just doing your job. That's desperation.

It has nothing to do with him or how well she does or doesn't know him. It's about her, what she feels like she needs to do.

I don't understand your reasons for thinking these concepts are separate to her, and why it would be professional over anything else when that contradicts everything the movie shows us about her. Im curious to hear your thoughts /gen

[ellie-ramune]

Backrooms is not a very complicated movie to understand and I’m kind of baffled that some people aren’t getting it. The literal backrooms and the themes it represents are spelled out for you (most without directly saying it). Like you do not need to watch his YT series to understand the movie either, the most important part of the horror is uncertainty and dread of the unknown.

[moghedien]

I love that AI art was a plot point of the Devil Wears Prada 2 and yet they still hired someone to draw all the “AI art” shown in the movie and posted a video of it being made to show that it wasn’t AI like it really is that easy not to be sloppy even when trying to show slop

[jackmerridude-deactivated202608]

Something I’ll never understand in the lord of the flies fandom is how people criticise the bbc series for mischaracterising the books characters, yet say nothing about the 1990 movie?? this is what frustrates me the most about the 90s adaptation. Turning Golding’s private religious school choir boys, which is CLEARLY rooted in upper middle class british upbringing into american military cadets????

This isn’t to say that similar ideologies or allegories didn’t or currently do not exist in the usa, but for people who claim to be “very very knowledgeable” on the novel, but fail to gather the books central point………..smh. without going too off topic, if we’re REALLY out here judging realism and the thematics of lotf, the bbc series (IN MY OPINION, KEEP UR BLOODY SOCKS ON) portrays goldings ideas the best. ofc it can’t be 100% faithful to the book…cuz like…..trying to condense ≈200 pages into a four hour series makes that impossible.

Everything the series ‘makes up’ is logical. and i do understand those who dislike Jimon as a pairing and why it doesn’t appeal to you, but to claim it makes zero sense is so bloody STUPID!!!! there’s only so much information given in the original text regarding the boys backgrounds, + it’s also noticeable that the series gives the most depth to the characters who end up dead, specifically simon (through flashbacks) and to expand on him through a believable past closeness with jack as they had a similar upbringing.

(i am clearly a very big enthusiast of the 1963 adaptation so don’t flame me)

If you’ve read all of this i love you because this is a coke rant i wrote at 4am so it’s probably not even grammatically correct🐈

[maxxie-or-smth]

you've met me at a very "yeah i'm trying to work on that" time in my life

[r3vengeapril]

Ralph

[chosokamosgirlfriend]

"do you think we're together in every universe?"

idk but in this one they sure are

[charitydingle]

The End of the F***ing World – 2.02

[pouty-valentine]

i like whatever genre ts is

[dwarvishring]

ian mckellen directed these movies actually

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Ian McKellen was not going to stand idly by and allow these movies to be heterosexual <3

[breelandwalker]

Sir Ian McKellen understanding how much two men holding hands means because he remembers when it was a forbidden act.

[pixiecaps]

big fan of whatever the youth is doing to torment scientology buildings

[pixiecaps]

they couldnt take the heat

[doctordotdj]

[jazetallo-art]

pov: you're making history. you're working with the most advanced technology in the world. outlook still doesn't fucking work.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

I’m a bit worried about pro shippers because some say fiction doesn’t effect reality but it does and some pro shippers ship things like adult x child and sibling x sibling and other things I’m not anti censorship but some things shouldn’t be normalized

I promise you if game of thrones and all those gothic literature haven't normalized incest — if slasher and horror movies haven't normalized murders or psychological torture, if hot villains haven't normalized manipulation or toxicity by now — then silly fanfiction isn't going to normalize shit.

if someone ever lets fiction affect them enough to the point they think bad things in fiction are good in-real-life because they're portrayed as such, then chances are that, with or without the fiction they consume, they are already troubled and they need help.

there are things you can worry about that are actually worrisome, but what type of fanfiction someone writes or reads is not one of those things.

you can, of course, find some things in fiction unpleasant. you can choose not to engage with fanfics that make you uncomfortable. but you have no right to tell other people what they can or can't create and/or consume. that is not your business.

and to my fellow writers, write whatever you want, however you want. no matter how messed up or morally questionable it is. you have all the freedom and power to write whatever you want, however you want forever. don't let strangers tell you what you can or cannot write.