Minority Mindset

The Backrooms, a popular online myth about endless, empty office spaces and hallways, wasn’t created by any single person. Like the legend of Slender Man, it emerged organically from online communities – starting on 4Chan and evolving through shared images and stories, becoming a collaborative storytelling project. Now, a feature film called Backrooms attempts to turn this online lore into a traditional horror story, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. However, the film’s reception has been uneven, highlighting the challenge of building a full movie around an atmosphere or feeling, even a compelling one.

Let’s quickly rewind to get everyone up to speed. Paula, played brilliantly by Tatiana Maslany, is a captivating but troubled woman. She’s locked in a difficult custody dispute with her ex, Karl (Jake Johnson, who seems to always end up in shows with questionable titles), who has a considerable financial advantage. To their eight-year-old daughter, Hazel, Paula is the playful parent – she lets Hazel eat ice cream for dinner, doesn’t mind a little swearing, enthusiastically joins in on TikTok trends, and even coaches her soccer team.

It’s clear that the success of The Clone Wars heavily influenced the new Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu. While Star Wars’ animated series, like Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Bad Batch, have passionate fan bases, they generally reach smaller audiences than the live-action films and shows. Notably, both animated series are connected to the storyline of The Clone Wars.

Though Tracker introduces new faces in each episode as Colter travels, the show’s regular cast is truly special. Tracker skillfully blends self-contained cases with ongoing storylines for its main characters, aiming for a balance between episodic and serialized television. While it’s still refining this approach, the show has consistently delivered compelling characters, proving it knows what it’s doing. Over three seasons, Tracker has featured a memorable group of characters, and highlighting the best ones is a fascinating endeavor.

The shift towards open-world gameplay in the Pokémon series began with Pokémon Legends: Arceus. While it offered more freedom and exploration than previous games, its five areas were separate and distinct, preventing it from feeling like a fully connected open world.

The 2026 film Mortal Kombat II continues the story from the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie and is the fourth film in the live-action series. Director Simon McQuoid brings back the original cast – including Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Damon Herriman, and Hiroyuki Sanada – and introduces new actors Adeline Rudolph as Kitana, Tati Gabrielle as Jade, Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn, and Karl Urban as Johnny Cage. Released in theaters on May 8th, the film has already earned over $100 million worldwide.