'Backrooms' Finale Explained: What Happened to Mary & Who Are the Scientists Who Captured Her?
The movie doesn't provide direct answers to many questions.
Kane Parsons' Backrooms, an adaptation of the popular creepypasta of the same name, has a mysterious finale that leaves viewers with more questions than answers.
The fate of psychotherapist Mary is uncertain, and the nature of the Backrooms is shrouded in mystery. The director is deliberately withholding details, saving them for a possible sequel.
Warning: this text contains spoilers.
What Is the Backrooms?
The action of Backrooms takes place in 1990. Clark, a failed architect and furniture store owner, discovers a passageway to an anomalous dimension at work – an endless labyrinth of yellow walls.
While the movie doesn't reveal the origins of Backrooms, the characters manage to discover some of its properties. The strange-looking inhabitants are the embodiment of the dimension's inaccurate memories of past travelers.
The furniture inside is Backrooms' distorted "view" of objects from the real world. An upside-down stop sign in the hallways suggests that it is a kind of looking glass – Backrooms reflects reality like a funhouse mirror, distorting figures and exaggerating human vices.
Parsons hinted that this is a much more flexible space than it seems, and the "rules" established in the movie may be illusory. Just like with Silent Hill in the franchise of the same name, Clark's thoughts influence Backrooms.
Who Are the Scientists Who Captured Mary?
At the movie's conclusion, Mary finds herself in a mysterious research facility. People in hazmat suits lead her around – they turn out to be representatives of the company Async.
Researcher Phil explains that Async originally planned to create MRI machines. However, during development, they discovered the Backrooms dimension – the dimension then became the primary focus of their research.
Scientists are conducting expeditions into the dimension to determine its nature and find practical applications. The researcher who was attacked by the monster at the beginning of the movie also worked for Async.
The company hopes to use Mary to learn more about the anomalous zone. During his exploration of the dimension, Clark brought a piece of furniture back to his own dimension, meaning that Backrooms creations – both useful items and monsters – can enter the human world.
What Happened to Mary in the Finale?
During the interrogation, Mary asks Phil if Async will let her go. Phil doesn't give a direct answer, but his reaction suggests that management won't want such a valuable witness walking free.
In the finale, viewers see a disfigured Mary – not her corpse, but a distorted memory of her in the Backrooms, where mental trauma results in physical deformities. Mary and Clarke had previously encountered people with similar deformities, they were also memories.
Async will likely keep her around for research purposes, at least for a while – her ultimate fate will probably be revealed in the sequel.
What Do We Know About the Backrooms From the Web Series of the Same Name?
A creepypasta about Backrooms appeared on 4chan in 2019. In 2022, Kane Parsons launched a web series on YouTube filmed in a found footage format. The series revolves around Async, whose researchers attempt to study the Complex – the name of Backrooms in the series – and document the events within.
Parsons doesn't provide definitive answers about the nature of the anomaly either. Fan theories suggest that Backrooms is either a machine that ruptured and remixed time and space using electromagnetic waves or the result of a Big Bang-like phenomenon in a complete void where rooms spontaneously began to connect and create infinite levels.
Some believe that Backrooms' original appearance could have been different and that its locations adapt to the observer by projecting their thoughts.
