Pitfalls

May 6, 1990

> *"THAT IS NOT A F\*CKING PERSON!"*
> -Marvin E. Leigh
>
>

***Backrooms - Pitfalls*** is the ninth video in Kane Parsons's Backrooms series.

## Synopsis

On May 6, 1990, an ASYNC expedition cameraman falls down a pit, and goes exploring after hearing yells. He eventually encounters a hostile entity, and manages to safely make it back with footage after running for his life.

## Full analysis

### The expedition

At the start of the video, the ASYNC Research Institute logo is shown for the first time. It is likely that this is another branch of ASYNC, as ASYNC itself has been previously called the ASYNC Foundation (*The Third Test*)

The video, captured by Marvin E. Leigh on May 6, 1990, begins.

The video starts with ASYNC employees, including Marvin E. Leigh, George, an unknown woman, and an unknown person setting out on an expedition into the Backrooms putting on hazmat suits in what appears to be a changing room. After putting on hazmat suits and testing their communication system (to talk to each other), they enter the room containing the Threshold. On an observation room above the Threshold room, an unknown man is watching the expedition set out.

The expedition then enters the now-completed control room within the Backrooms on the other side of the Threshold before setting out. The expedition members discuss an upcoming "tour" (likely the one seen in Presentation), and soon reach the end of the yellow tape they are following. One of the expedition members begins bolting down something (likely a roll of red tape for further exploration), and they continue on, carrying red tape from the roll to help them find their way back.

Eventually, the expedition reaches a strange room unlike any others they've seen: an otherwise normal room with a floor full of squarish-shaped pits, with a door on the other end. Another member of the expedition crosses the room on the floor between the pits and opens the door, revealing a room full of light. He then asks for Marvin to quickly come over with the camera. As Marvin (who is a little scared) begins crossing the room, the camera glitches out, revealing a backwards message:

"While data could be inferred from these readings. Nobody actually knew what would actually be found on the other side."

The message seems to be about the room behind the door, but it's a little strange - the man who opened the door should know what was on the other side. However, before Marvin can reach him and record what's behind the door, he falls into one of the pits.

### Marvin's journey

Marvin's fall lands him in a room at the end of the pit similar to the rest of the Backrooms, but with slightly different wallpaper. Marvin is slightly injured (he thinks he broke a shoulder bone), but is otherwise OK. The remaining members of the expedition are trying to figure out a way to get him back up the pit (which starts at the bottom as a horizontal tunnel) when Marvin hears a yell, and attempts to find out what it was.

He goes down a slightly "twisted" dead end hallway with a gap between the wall and the floor. He discovers that the gap is the entrance to another region of the Backrooms that resembles a small town at night, complete with a road, street lights, and houses. The entire area is bathed in red light. Marvin then hears another shout: *"Does anybody hear me?"* Marvin then starts walking down the "road," while, over the comms, his fellow explorers discuss if "Miller" is right about the "null zones" (It is unknown what "null zones" are, but they were mentioned in Mar11\_90\_ARCHIVE.tar.)

Near the end of the road, Marvin hears another shout coming from a lit-up house. He enters, finds a blue room full of "inverted turn signs," and hears more yells. He goes down a long, narrow hallway with blue wallpaper and eventually enters a room with cracked, old wallpaper with a chair, cardboard pieces (some of which appear to be formed into a "mattress"), shoes, what appear to be handcuffs, and a backpack. He hears a much louder yell, turns the corner, and enters a long, wide room. It is then that Marvin realizes something.

The shouts aren't coming from a person at all. They're coming from a black, wiry entity which has been replicating the screams of a person. It was a trap to draw in more people - and it worked. As Marvin realizes this, the entity begins running after him. Marvin quickly starts running out, back to where he came from, falling in the process, the entity's screams - sounding like the screams of the person it killed - sounding behind him.

Marvin finally reaches the end of the pit, looking behind him in fear. However, before the entity can come after him, his fellow explorers lower a briefcase attached to the red tape, allowing him to climb up into the "tunnel" part of the pit to escape. The video ends with him looking up at the entrance into the pit, full of the white light of the Backrooms's fluorescent lights.

## Within the series

This video is the final incident that shows ASYNC the dangers of the Backrooms - though one that overshadows everything else. For the first time, ASYNC knows that they are not alone - there is *something* out there, and it is hostile. It tried to kill Marvin, but he escaped - with footage to prove it.