Places Around Reed Graded on How Backrooms-esque They Are
Have you ever wandered through a deserted hallway at Reed and thought to yourself that it resembles the mundane yet creepy realm known only as the Backrooms? No? Well, I have, and I bring you… drum roll, please… a list of assorted places around Reed graded on how well they resemble the Backrooms’ aesthetic.
First, a brief explanation of the Backrooms for those who are unacquainted. According to Know Your Meme, the Backrooms are “an eerie liminal space one finds themselves in when they accidently noclip out of reality.” The legend of the Backrooms stems from an uncanny image of a generic uninhabited room. The photo was first posted to a creepy image thread on 4chan in 2018 and an associated legend sprung up in 2019. Since then, the Backrooms have become an Internet phenomenon, with spin-off memes and media galore (learn more at Know Your Meme). In 2024, it was discovered that the original photo associated with the Backrooms depicts a furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, that was undergoing renovation in 2003.
Studio Art building bathrooms: Always a depressing shade of bleak regardless of the time. Odd in a way you can’t quite put your finger on. Makes you uneasy in a more supernatural way than most bathrooms. 9/10.
FSM and Cross Canyon dorm bathrooms: Also cursed, though more normal. 8/10.
Cross Canyon dorms: The cozy lofts are a demerit, but the rest have a healthy heaping of banal spookitude. Seems like a murder might have happened in there at some point. 7/10. 10/10 for the cursed laundry room in McKinley.
Anna Mann: Sorry, but Anna Mann is just too cozy and friendly to ever compete. 0/10. Maybe 2/10 at night, 7/10 if you count those spooky tiny bathrooms.
Bragdon: Too cozy most of the time, but I have indeed gotten lost in the hallways because they are just that generic. And yes, I had lived in Bragdon for 7 months at the time. 4/10.
ODB basement/laundry room/bike room: Decently haunted. 7/10.
ODB: Cursed, but in a different way. I will grant that ODB is the kind of place that will suck you in like a minotaur’s labyrinth and will never let you out again and will change the location of the staircases on you, but the aesthetic is definitely doing its own non-Backrooms thing. 3/10.
Sub-basement of the Physics building: There’s always some weird unidentified noise there, the pipes beckon, and the doors look like they probably could probably go to another dimension. Weird tools and objects are sparsely scattered around, but no sign of human habitation is present beyond names scrawled on doors probably dating back years. 10/10.
Basement of the Biology/Physics building: Oddly worrying feeling of being in a space that somehow mashes up corporate with dungeon, but with funny doodles on the whiteboard to balance it out. 9/10.
RCA parking lot at night: Why do I always have the sinister feeling that Slenderman is following me? 10/10.
Theatre Annex outside at dusk: Looks like a nice site for a murder and/or demon summoning circle. 9/10.
Library LL2 and LL1: You can’t even tell what time it is outside. Time probably runs either slower or faster here. I would not be surprised if you told me that a malevolent spirit was cursed to be bound here and snatch up unwary trespassers, never to be seen again. 10/10.
That weird old balcony area in the squash courts: 6/10. It’s just automatically unsettling.
Eliot basement at night: Does feel like the kind of place where a ghost might be behind each door. Also feels like the kind of place where the ghosts might be friendly. 5/10.
Eliot top floor at night: Kind of spooky. Definitely a little off, but not fully sinister. 6/10.
Bottom floor of the Physical Plant: Pretty decent, though the decor is just a smidgen too happy and inviting. 8/10.
Practice rooms in the PAB: Liminal, unadorned, deceptively easy to get lost in, just the right balance of sinister otherworldly realm and regular office space. Very nice. 8/10.
The landing halfway up the staircase to access the pool: 94% sure that this is a set left over from that submarine movie Das Boot. 100% sure that it’s haunted. 9/10.
Bottom floor of Greenwood at night: Looks like The Office meets The Twilight Zone. 9/10.
Trillium: Trillium’s architecture is a wacky abomination that defies categorization, other than it seems like the kind of place that the entities inhabiting the Backrooms would probably be mortified to find themselves in. Strikes me as what might happen if a Silicon Valley startup built its offices in R’lyeh. I did not realize “LEED-certified parking garage” wasn’t an oxymoron until I set foot in this building. Negative gajillion.
Bottom floor of Vollum: It’s trying so hard. But I’ve often found it more cozy than unsettling. 5/10.
Chemistry building at night: Eh. 4/10.
Biology/Physics breezeway: Honorable mention despite not actually being a room. 7/10.
Disclaimer: These ratings are merely meant to be all in good fun and are not objective by any means. Emails are welcome if you have any disagreements, ratings of your own for spaces not mentioned, and/or photos of more Backrooms-y places around Reed!