dont think the backrooms are scary. i like them. empty hotel hallways are literally my comfortable place. or those weird enclosed pools people post sometimes. i would absolutely vibe in there
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Yeah liminal spaces are cool. That's why most people trying to make them scary have to add a monster, to tip the unease some people might feel into dread. On their own I think we're just as likely to think they're neat!
A couple weeks ago I found out all the backrooms pool room stuff was inspired by one artist: Jared Pike. The series is called Dream Pools. He uses a special rendering engine called Luxcore to render the way light refracts through water. https://www.jaredpike.art/projects/dream-pools
This, exactly this. I grew up with liminal spaces as my playgrounds, the motels my grandmother managed, the rest stops of my vagrant childhood, the empty apartment building hallways and late night department stores of my solitary childhood. They were safe places for me.
My mother worked as a jeweler in a department store, she couldn't afford a babysitter so I came to work with her. Sometimes she worked very late, long after the mall had emptied out, fixing watches and wedding rings. My grandmother was a motel manager, we lived on property.
All of these places turned into a canvas for imagination. Places to explore, to hide, to wander through and fill with whatever I wanted. None of that was scary or eerie. Just a blank place, all mine, away from the noise.
When I was a kid, I found out about the "catacombs" in our local mall because someone left one of the doors open. I kept begging my dad to let me explore them but he never did. Which, in hindsight, was probably good, but doesn't change where I wanted to be.
the enclosed pool spaces bug me because the shallow water and hard tile walls and ceilings make them look especially enclosed, they're usually rendered in a way that shows just how much they obstruct natural light with hallways and corners. Imagining the echo amplifies the perceived claustrophobia
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2663530/POOLS/
https://www.jaredpike.art/projects/dream-pools