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Mikeroscopic_ t1_itzjour wrote

The back rooms is specifically a creepy pasta from a few years ago.

The concept comes from “liminal spaces.” Which are areas in a building that exist to get from on place to another. Think stairwells in a school, office hallways, apartment lobbies, etc. Liminal spaces are weird because they only really exist to get us from one place to another. And because of that they tend to blend in with one another and all vaguely feel familiar yet void of other people. Like there’s one stairwell in my workplace that’s a very liminal space. It has a few paintings, fake plants, a stairwell, and nothing else. No one hangs out there for more than the thirty seconds spend getting from one floor to another. But it can be unsettling because this space is so bland it can be literally anywhere and so boring it’s meant to be forgotten and blends in with any other stairwell I’ve been in. So I guess the real horror of the back rooms comes from the feeling that it’s vaguely familiar because it’s like any other forgettable office anyone has ever been in.

Edit: Here’s an article on liminal spaces for a better explanation.

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nineteenseventies OP t1_itzk7sw wrote

That is great info, I appreciate it. It really is a bit eerie. The reason I started looking into it at all is because I saw a picture of a “poolroom” back room with these giant pillars that I have literally dreamt of before. So it got my gears turning. Lol.

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Mikeroscopic_ t1_itzkoq0 wrote

Word, glad I could help. The hotel ones always get me, I always get a sense of uneasiness going to ice machines sometimes now and it does feel like a place I could get lost. r/LiminalSpace has some good examples of this too, I know there a Twitter account out there that’s posts similar pictures too.

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travelinmatt76 t1_iu8dors wrote

One of my most favorite liminal spaces I've ever been in was on old empty clothing store. It had that darker beige carpeting and mirrored columns. It had no echo because of the carpet. It just felt strange to be in such a large space with no echo.

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