You Won’t Believe How This Creepy Internet Urban Legend Inspired Severance!

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The series “Severance” has a rather eerie feel to it; truth be told, who among us hasn’t had the unsettling dream of an endless workday repeating itself over and over again?

Contemplate this scenario: An endless stream of monotonous tales, reheated fish from the microwave, and subpar tea brews. Just thinking about it gives me a chill and leaves me grateful for our thoughtful (yet distant) teammates.

Additionally, what makes Severance particularly chilling is not just the use of liminal spaces to foster discomfort, as I’ve previously discussed. It’s also rooted in a genuinely unsettling internet myth!

I’m talking, of course, about the mundane terror of the Backrooms. 

During an interview with Inverse, the show’s creator Dan Erickson openly acknowledged that his inspiration came from films such as The Truman Show and Office Space. He further mentioned that there were also elements influenced by the unusual internet lore known as The Backrooms.

It appears that Erickson didn’t provide more details about precisely which aspects of the Backrooms intrigued him, but it’s clear to those familiar with this peculiar online folklore.

What are the Backrooms?

In simple terms, the “Backrooms” is an imaginative, out-of-our-dimension area that you can stumble upon when you step outside of normal reality. Typically, these areas are depicted as unending office spaces or vast networks of endless corridors filled with empty rooms.

4Chan users, whose identities remain unknown, uploaded the images on the paranormal-themed forum /x/ in 2019. They were asked to share unsettling photos that appeared odd or strange. The first post featured an image showing what looked like a perplexing abandoned office environment.

In reaction to the image, an unidentified user depicted the Backrooms as a location you can step into once you “escape reality by clipping out” where there’s only “the musty smell of old damp carpets, the eerie monotone of yellow hue, the constant background noise of fluorescent lights at full hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly partitioned empty rooms that one could be confined in.

Following the initial share, the intrigue surrounding the Backrooms has skyrocketed, leading to the creation of additional branches within the lore. These additions encompass various levels, creatures, and further elements.

Why are the Backrooms scary?

The Backrooms are frightening due to multiple factors. Primarily, it’s the fact that they represent a different reality where one might be stuck forever, surrounded by unknown entities. However, there’s an underlying terror that goes beyond this, which makes them truly horrifying.

They’re eerie in an uncanny way, making them unsettling yet strangely familiar. For instance, think back to moments when you walked through deserted places such as hotel corridors, offices, or even schools. Chances are, you felt a slight sense of discomfort, maybe even quickened your stride without realizing it.

As a gamer, I’ve noticed that empty virtual worlds can feel unsettling, like an office without workers or a hotel without guests. It’s as if they’ve slipped into a sort of twilight zone – the Uncanny Valley. This is because on some primal level, we sense the absence of what should be there, and it triggers our innate fear of the unknown. Backrooms, with their eerie familiarity and unsettling oddness, are a prime example of this phenomenon.

How is Severance like the Backrooms?

As a gamer, I can’t help but feel a chill down my spine as I navigate Lumon’s labyrinthine halls and deserted offices in Severance. Just like the unsettling Backrooms, the show employs similar liminal architecture to instill a sense of foreboding in its viewers. Often, you’ll witness the Macrodata Refinement team making impossible turns or stumbling into rooms that defy physics. This deliberate disorientation leaves me with an undeniable sensation that something is amiss at this eerie office environment – it’s as if the very walls are whispering secrets I can’t quite decipher.

If you’re fond of Mark and his Macrodata Refinement group, here’s an interesting interview with Dylan Cherry that you might enjoy, along with a bit of news about the potential return of Severance in its third season.

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2025-01-17 01:57