Entity

One of my favorite feelings is that of delving into something new and unfamiliar. There is a sense of excitement that comes with the unknown and a certain anticipation that comes with inflated expectations, and when said expectations are met or (rarely) exceeded, an unrivaled glee follows. I love that and, particularly with relatively inane or inconsequential things, it’s always nice to sit back and allow myself a bit of conjecture. Though the merit and quality of the show can certainly be called into question, a passage from a 2000 episode of “Family Guy” comes to mind:

Peter: … And where’s my boat?

Timeshare Salesman: Hold on! You have a choice. You can have the boat, or the mystery box.

Lois: What, are you crazy? We’ll take the boat.

P: Nonono, not so fast, Lois. A boat’s a boat, but a mystery box could be anything. It could even be a boat! You know how much we’ve wanted one of those.

L: Then let’s just-

P: We’ll take the box.

I would be remiss if I were to try to convince anyone that that hasn’t been me at least once in my life.

Of course, there’s this… other side of this conversation. The side that I don’t particularly like to acknowledge and whose shared experience is generally ignored by pretty much everybody in the world, and that is the fear of the unknown. While I could sit back and discuss the mental health crises that emerged from my graduation from college in 2019, or those that arose after being let go from my dream job in 2022, the topic of this piece is a little bit more existential than just “I’m not sure what to do next.” Liminal is a term that is thrown around occasionally, particularly with regards to the sub genre of horror referred to as, funnily enough, Liminal Horror. Liminal Horror takes the idea that there are terrifying unseen things lurking in our everyday world and builds worlds worth of lore and hours upon hours of incredible content, the most prominent of which is almost certainly SCP (“Secure. Contain. Protect.”). Most of this lore is contained on wikis or with independent content creators online, and some of it is absolutely, stunningly terrifying.

While SCP is important to the conversation, there are other smaller fictions, as well. I recently discovered the Backrooms (Which is far too referential and complicated to discuss in these brief notes) and have delved into the mountain of lore behind them that has sprung up in the last year or two. The idea that there are endless corridors of absolute nothing, save for incomprehensible terrors and chipped yellow paint and the buzzing of industrial lighting, is so incredibly fascinating to me. I fell down the rabbit hole and now can’t help but to try to share that feeling.

A brief but important note; The numbers indicated with the movement titles hold little actual meaning. Aside from acting as derivative tools for pitch material, they are simply a call back to Backrooms lore, in which different areas (Referred to as “Levels”) are usually given arbitrary, and often ridiculous, numbers. Each movement takes inspiration from a particular aspect of Backrooms lore, and some of my favorite levels and entities found therein. I cannot recommend Kane Pixels and his incredible content enough, though I advise caution to any who seek it out.

Notable Performances:

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