History YMMV / TheBackrooms

** Though most of the demons are not negotiable, The Backrooms is also comparable to ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' due to how the appearance of Backrooms resemble the typical urban indoors dungeon layout of the games. Special mention to ''Videogame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', as that particular game has an entire sector of shopping mall made by uncanny otherworldly beings, like how whoever's responsible for the Backrooms sometimes replicate areas that are usually people's real life comfort in an uncanny way.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: A variant. A major complaint amongst the community is that with the massive NewbieBoom spreading from various sites like Youtube, the Backrooms Wikidot had suffered a massive onset of articles of varying, oftentimes poor, quality. Not to mention several works either downplaying or outright omitting the type of liminal horror that projected ''WebOriginal/TheBackrooms'' into popularity in the first place, such as adding descriptions and classifications to elements that were kept vague or were only alluded. This is mainly attributed to the site's lack of quality control and moderation present in other similar Wikidot communities such as ''Website/SCPFoundation''.

** There's been some arguments over the lore itself. Both the Backrooms Wikidot and Liminal Archive take differing interpretations of the level names, entities, objects, and substance of the levels themselves. Both also have differing factions, such as the Wikidot having the [[http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/the-m-e-g Major Explorer Group]] and Liminal Archives having the United Nations and Colonies of the Backrooms. This is not even to mention the Fandom wiki, which also takes things into a different direction, though it uses concepts taken from Wikidot.

* FandomRivalry: Within the same Fandom no less! For a long time there was a bit of competition between Liminal Archives and the Backrooms Wikidot, with the former being partly made up of disgruntled users of the latter. Much of this was caused due to creative differences, opinions on site quality, how moderation was handled, as well as drama between creators on the Wikidot. This seems to have mostly died down, however.

** The expanded lore added after the original post. Some find it interesting, believed that adding lore and MagicAIsMagicA rules to the Backrooms makes it more scary and that the additions of new places, entities and organizations make the setting more engaging. Others think that making the Backrooms [[NothingIsScarier less vague makes them less scary]], like what happened to Literature/CandleCove, and feel that introducing large numbers of divergent environments and creatures takes away from the original concept of being a single person stuck in a "glitched" version of a familiar environment. Either way, there's little middle ground.

* FandomRivalry:
** Within the same Fandom no less! For a long time there was a bit of competition between Liminal Archives and the Backrooms Wikidot, with the former being partly made up of disgruntled users of the latter. Much of this was caused due to creative differences, opinions on site quality, how moderation was handled, as well as drama between creators on the Wikidot. This seems to have mostly died down, however.

** Recently, there's been some arguments over the lore itself. Both the Backrooms Wikidot and Liminal Archive take differing interpretations of the level names, entities, objects, and substance of the levels themselves. Both also have differing factions, such as the Wikidot having the [[http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/the-m-e-g Major Explorer Group]] and Liminal Archives having the United Nations and Colonies of the Backrooms. This is not even to mention the Fandom wiki, which also takes things into a different direction, though it uses concepts taken from Wikidot.

** The expanded lore added after the original post. Some find it interesting, considering adding lore and MagicAIsMagicA rules to the Backrooms makes it more scary. Others think making the Backrooms [[NothingIsScarier less vague makes them less scary]], like what happened to Literature/CandleCove. Either way, there's little middle ground.

** Even the existence whatsoever of Entities within the Backrooms is a contentious matter. Some believe that the Backrooms is a properly horrifying place in itself because of how vast and uncanny a location it is and that the Entities actually detract from the situation, while others think that they add some necessary flavor and sense of immediate threat. Others fall in between, perhaps feeling that entities should be rare enough that a sense of tension lingers, but not common enough as to steal the show, or accepting entities as a concept while holding that [[SturgeonsLaw most of them are uninteresting]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: It appears to follow in the same footsteps as the ''Website/SCPFoundation'', with it featuring mysterious monsters/objects, weird interdimensional areas, an authority figure whose goal revolves around studying the anomolous ([=SCP=]s for the Foundation, and the Backrooms for M.E.G), and a general sense of mystique to the whole thing. Its actual ''effectiveness'' of being one, as well as it's content, is a different matter entirely. See BrokenBase above.

*** Another contentious entity are the Smilers, who are [[SlasherSmile scary smiling faces]] that [[DarkIsEvil hide in the darkness]]. Some people see them as generic "scary smiling faces", like the ones used in ''[[VideoGame/SCP087 SCP-087-B]]'' (In-fact one of their most common interperetations is just [[CaptainErsatz The Cheshire Smile from the game]]), while others think their mysterious roles and why they are in the Backrooms makes them scary.

* VindicatedByHistory: The video was already a decent hit but didn't get nearly the same about of hits until WebVideo/KanePixelsTheBackrooms went viral. The Kane Pixels series going helped bring more attention to Evan Royalty's take on the Backrooms and comments on the video became very frequent. While unfavorable comparisons get made between this movie and Kane's videos and the use of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' assets isn't necessarily seen as a positive, this video had different goals, such as a realistic portrayal of [[PoliceProcedural police procedures]] and the trauma even a trained officer might go through being isolated in the Backrooms with an unknown entity. [[spoiler: As a twist, Rich escapes alive inadvertently, but requires psychiatric rehab to recover.]] More viewers got to appreciate the video's history as a precursor to Backrooms FoundFootage videos becoming a bigger deal.

* VindicatedByHistory: The video was already a decent hit but didn't get nearly the same about of hits until WebVideo/KanePixelsTheBackrooma went viral. The Kane Pixels series going helped bring more attention to Evan Royalty's take on the Backrooms and comments on the video became very frequent. While unfavorable comparisons get made between this movie and Kane's videos and the use of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' assets isn't necessarily seen as a positive, this video had different goals, such as a realistic portrayal of [[PoliceProcedural police procedures]] and the trauma even a trained officer might go through being isolated in the Backrooms with an unknown entity. [[spoiler: As a twist, Rich escapes alive inadvertently, but requires psychiatric rehab to recover.]] More viewers got to appreciate the video's history as a precursor to Backrooms FoundFootage videos becoming a bigger deal.

* VindicatedByHistory: The video was already a decent hit, but the Kane Pixels series going viral helped bring more attention to Evan Royalty's take on the Backrooms and comments on the video became very frequent. While unfavorable comparisons get made between this movie and Kane's videos and the use of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' assets isn't necessarily seen as a positive, this video had different goals, such as a realistic portrayal of [[PoliceProcedural police procedures]] and the trauma even a trained officer might go through being isolated in the Backrooms with an unknown entity. [[spoiler: As a twist, Rich escapes alive inadvertently, but requires psychiatric rehab to recover.]]

** The expanded lore added after the original post. Some find it interesting, considering adding lore and MagicAIsMagicA rules to the Backrooms makes it more scary. Others think making the Backrooms less vague makes them less scary, like what happened to Literature/CandleCove. Either way, there's little middle ground.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: A variant. A major complaint amongst the community is that with the massive NewbieBoom spreading from various sites like Youtube, the Backrooms Wikidot had suffered a massive onset of articles of varying, oftentimes poor, quality. Not to mention several works either downplaying or outright omitting the type of liminal horror that projected ''WebOriginal/TheBackrooms'' into popularity in the first place. This is mainly attributed to the site's lack of quality control and moderation present in other similar Wikidot communities such as ''Website/SCPFoundation''.

** Some see the wiki's gradual shift into a creepy encyclopedia with loads of lore turning the Backrooms into a poor man's Wiki/SCPFoundation, while others argue that it's different from the Wiki due to the lack of comedy of any kind (except for some joke levels) and how the Backrooms has no central authority (though M.E.G and several other canons have established authority figures).

** With its shared origins (Creepypastas that expanded into a full-on NewWeird community) make it an ideal form of media for ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' fans and vice versa.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: A variant. A major complaint amongst the community is that with the massive NewbieBoom spreading from various sites like Youtube, the Backrooms Wikidot had suffered a massive onset of articles of varying, oftentimes poor, quality. Not to mention several works either downplaying or outright omitting the type of liminal horror that projected ''WebOriginal/TheBackrooms'' into popularity in the first place. This is mainly attributed to the site's lack of quality control and moderation present in other similar Wikidot communities such as ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''.

* SpiritualSuccessor: It appears to follow in the same footsteps as the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', with it featuring mysterious monsters/objects, weird interdimensional areas, an authority figure whose goal revolves around studying the anomolous ([=SCP=]s for the Foundation, and the Backrooms for M.E.G), and a general sense of mystique to the whole thing. Its actual ''effectiveness'' of being one, as well as it's content, is a different matter entirely. See BrokenBase above.

** Another contentious entity are the Smilers, who are [[SlasherSmile scary smiling faces]] that [[DarkIsEvil hide in the darkness]]. Some people see them as generic "scary smiling faces", like the ones used in ''[[VideoGame/SCP087 SCP-087-B]]'' (In-fact one of their most common interperetations is just [[CaptainErsatz The Cheshire Smile from the game]]), while others think their mysterious roles and why they are in the Backrooms makes them scary.

** Many fans of the Backrooms lore also like the Kane Pixels rendition of the series thanks to the very passionate homage to the Backrooms and the care put into making the camera movements look realistic, as if the videos are real documentaries. It helps that the series has shone a spotlight on the lore as a whole, giving it more attention, and set a standard of quality for fan videos about exploring the Backrooms.

* SpiritualSuccessor: It appears to follow in the same footsteps as the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', with it featuring mysterious monsters/objects, weird interdimensional areas, an authority figure whose goal revolves around studying the anomolous ([=SCP=]s for the Foundation, and the Backrooms for M.E.G), and a general sense of mystique to the whole thing. It's actual ''effectiveness'' of being one, as well as it's content, is a different matter entirely. See BrokenBase above.

** Some see the wiki's gradual shift into a creepy encyclopedia with loads of lore turning the Backrooms into a poor man's Wiki/SCPFoundation, while others argue that it's different from the Wiki due to the lack of comedy of any kind (except for some joke levels) and how the Backrooms has no central authority (though M.E.G and several other canons have established authoirty figures).

** Recently, there's been some arguments over the lore itself. Both the Backrooms Wikidot and Liminal Archive take differing interpretations of the level names, entities, objects, and substance of the levels themselves. Both also have differing factions, such as the Wikidot having the [[http://backrooms-wiki.wikidot.com/the-m-e-g Major Explorer Group]] and Liminal Archives having the United Nations and Colonies of the Backrooms.

*** Speaking of entities, the Partygoers as well as the things associated with them (Level Fun, Partypoopers, etc.) have a pretty split reception. To fans, they're either fun, scary, entities that add to the out-of-place creepiness of the Backrooms. To detractors, they're overhyped, have very little outside of being smug assimilator-type monsters, and their [[InterfaceScrew Interface Screw]] where they edit wiki documents falls flat because [[CaptainObvious 9 times out of 10 they will telegraph it in such an obvious way it no longer feels scary]].

!![=YMMV=] for the Kane Pixels FoundFootage universe:
%% Please hold off on any new examples for Kane Pixels series for a few days, as this page is currently in the process of [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=gbm2to25nh2x6iqo8aaqv5o0 a split]].
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Are the Bacteria entities truly hostile, or just driven mad from isolation and desperate for social interaction from any being who comes their way? There are two instances where an entity observes the camera guy in "The Backrooms (Found Footage)" episode but seem too shy to come out of hiding like ''they're'' the ones unsure. One entity gives chase, but doesn't actually harm the main character, and sounds vaguely elated to see another living being. One could interpret the entity grabbing the camera guy at the end as saving him from falling backwards, possibly to his demise if he glitched back into the real world with the camera and fell through the sky.
** The nature of the Bacteria entity in "Pitfalls" is also very ambiguous. Was it deliberately tricking Marvin so it could attack him? It certainly seems so, given that, when it sees him, it stops talking and starts screaming demonically while seemingly [[BerserkerRage pounding the wall with its left arm]] and advancing menacingly towards him, shaking its right arm. Still, the lack of speech after the lure adds ambiguity.
** Are ''some'' Bacterias hostile while ''others'' are peaceable and just want help? How much of this is the personality of the Bacteria itself? Could it be that the former human has enough self-control not to attack in some cases, other times losing control over their own mutated body or else not having any?
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "Not" Kane Pixels has created an [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3Dt5wce4cGLRqZdZOqLxJduShrz_mOjS entire playlist of the incredible soundtrack]] which is still being updated, ranging from eerie and twisted to disturbingly peaceful.
* CreepyAwesome:
** The wire entities (Bacteria) have some of the best designs in Backrooms history, and their AmbiguouslyEvil nature combined with their loud noises and frighteningly fast and fluid movements have made them beloved in the fandom.
** To a lesser extent, the unnamed entity seen at the end of Motion Detected is also one of the scariest creatures, mainly due to the fact that we see [[NothingIsScarier so little of it.]]
** The mysterious man looking down from a balcony in "Backrooms: Pitfalls" also stands out because we initially know so little about his role and intentions, and his posture is very confident like he knows a lot that we don't.
* EnsembleDarkHorse:
** The Bacterias are some of the scariest and most well known aspects of the series, yet so far, it's appeared in very little episodes [[SmallRoleBigImpact despite being implied to be the cause of most of the disappearances in the Backrooms]].
** The [=ASYNC=] Foundation became hit among the fan base, with multiple fan movies featuring Hazmat characters and/or the company logo in documentary footage of various projects or just fun times in The Backrooms. There has also been the idea floating around about the Wiki/SCPFoundation and [=ASYNC=] teaming up for joint ventures.
* FandomEnragingMisconception: Do not, I repeat do ''not'' call the Bacterias "Howlers".
** Likewise, discussing the series as though it is part of any of the wiki canons will often lead to backlash, as the series being in its own minimalist version of the setting has become clearer and clearer over time.
* GeniusBonus: The title of the unlisted video linked in "Report" is the ISBN number for ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper]]'', a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman about a woman confined to a yellow room where the yellow wallpapers gradually mutates into [[spoiler:a figure of a woman trapped in the wallpaper that moves through the room.]]
* ItWasHisSled: Fans of the Backrooms lore likely knew what was up with the distressed calls in "Backrooms: Pitfalls". TheReveal was such a landmark that it became well-known regardless, due to all the viewers who tuned in. [[spoiler: People familiar with lore like the Skin-Stealers' ability to mimic voices and the warnings about deceptive cries for help in general easily deduced that an entity was making the cries. Reaction videos followed shortly to further share this plot twist.]]
* OneSceneWonder:
** The unknown entity creeping its tentacles around the corner in "Motion Detected" is nothing short of spine-chilling.
** The man in the business suit watching the Hazmats cross the threshold in "Pitfalls" gives off major [[VideoGame/HalfLife G-Man]] vibes.
* RealismInducedHorror: It's downright horrific every time a character becomes forcibly separated from their companions and is left to wander all alone in seemingly-empty, endless or gigantic environments, especially since it's not impossible for it to happen in real life. "Pitfalls" shows an especially disturbing and realistic example of this.
* SignatureScene: The Bacteria's sudden appearance and spine-chilling pursuit of the camera guy in "Found Footage", having garnered many reactions since the release.
* ShockingMoments: Oh so very many.
** The Bacteria giving chase in "Found Footage". Later, it (or another one) grabs the camera guy and yanks him away from his own camera, possibly never to be seen again.
** The body recovered and examined in the "Autopsy Report" is infected with a mutant strain of bacteria - the same word used by Kane himself to describe the entities.
** TheReveal that the person crying out for help in "Pitfalls" [[spoiler:was a Bacteria showing its ability as a VoiceChangeling.]]
** On a meta level, many viewers were surprised when they found out that [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome everything was CGI, due to how realistic it looks and the fluid camera movements.]]
* SugarWiki/SoCoolItsAwesome: Absolutely bone-chilling, intriguing, enigmatic, and attention-grabbing, the series has gained a massive following who praise it for taking the already-existing concept and releasing one of the best and scariest interpretations of them all, especially for how real all of it looks.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome:
** The entire series convincingly portrays humans both in and out of Hazmat suits wandering liminal spaces who look ''real'' and convincingly motion-captured and the vast majority of what we see is 3D animation with an incredible 80's-90's VHS filter. The view from the camera is also motion-captured and very natural in its nuanced movements.
** Then there's the entities - so unnatural, so alien, so eldritch, so horrifying in their movements and sounds. The Bacterias move quickly and efficiently, and the unnamed entity whose tentacles creep around a corner is so beautifully terrifying that it's impossible to not be impressed, especially considering the fact that Kane is ''17 years old''.
* TheWoobie: Several examples.
** The camera guy in "Found Footage" gets dropped through the ground and into the infinite maze, has no idea what just happened or what this place is, gets chased by a screeching entity that has the advantage of no-clipping through solid objects, escapes, wanders around, finds himself back in the yellow hallways and gets grabbed by an entity, his final fate a mystery.
** Marvin the Hazmat Camera Operator falls into the titular "Pitfalls", is injured, separated from his team, attempts to aid someone screaming for help only to find out that it's a horrific VoiceChangeling monstrosity that pursues him while shrieking a mutated version of possible past victims' screams. He runs, falls, drops the camera, picks it up, bolts for the hole that he fell through and makes it out alive breathing and coughing, leaving his future uncertain.
** Everyone who's disappeared, especially the ''children.''
** If the Bacteria entities [[WasOnceAMan were once human]] and/or are ''legitimately'' begging and pleading for help in the only way possible for them, they definitely qualify.

* SoBadItsGood: The "Death Slides" series of videos from multiple uploaders doesn’t even try to be realistic, but the sight of hazmats inexplicably jumping down unknown slides can have a charm to it with the comedic tone often used. This led to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F07yMYZ557A a reaction live stream with ''Kane Pixels'' among the group]], giving a commentary on the "Death Slides" meme, and lightheartedly criticizing of the concept. Kane Pixels saying in a sense that he provoked this meme adds to the hillarity.

** Even the existence whatsoever of Entities within the Backrooms is a contentious matter. There are those who feel that the Backrooms is a properly horrifying place in itself because of how vast and uncanny a location it is and that the Entities actually detract from the situation, those who think that they add some necessary flavor and sense of immediate threat, and others who fall in between, perhaps feeling that entities should be rare enough that a sense of tension lingers but not common enough as to steal the show.