A Southern California mall is seemingly seeing an uptick in visitors thanks to the surprise box office horror movie “Backrooms” as people seek “liminal experiences” similar to the film.
The Los Angeles Puente Hills Mall is not unlike other once vibrant shopping centers that used to be filled with customers before internet shopping websites crushed these expansive indoor shopping malls.
But now thanks to a young Hollywood director with ties to Southern California, the nearly empty mall is the perfect place for fans of the new film to find the same scary experience they had while watching the psychological thriller.
Since the film’s release, people have headed to the AMC theater in the mall to catch the film, filling up social media sites like Instagram, TikTok, and X with spooky videos and pictures of the eerie halls, taking followers on a mini-thrill ride.
“Once one of the busiest malls in the SGV (San Gabriel Valley), now it sits half-lit and hollow, famous for its abandoned storefronts, dead escalators, and eerie quiet halls that still carry echoes of the 2000s.” one person captioned their video on TikTok.
The “Backrooms” movie uses empty office spaces, abandoned malls and fluorescent lighted hallways to create a liminal space-which is described as an “in-between space that exists on the boundary of what came before and what has not yet arrived. “
“The AMC that’s truly keeping this place alive was the best place I could’ve ever seen the ‘Backrooms” movie.”
The mall has its own tie to the movie industry, as it famously served as the backdrop for the “Twin Pines Mall” in the 1985 “Back to the Future” movie.
In the film, Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, unveils his time machine in the mall parking lot. It’s here that terrorists pursuing Doc show up and Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, escapes by hitting 88 mph in the DeLorean—accidentally launching himself into 1955.
Kane Parsons, the 20-year-old filmmaker behind the box office phenomenon “Backrooms” — that took in $118 million this weekend — is a former YouTuber who lives with his parents in a quiet suburban neighborhood in California.
