Not only does the new horror movie “Backrooms” place the nexus of suburban dread in San Jose, it identifies the exact intersection.
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Opening May 29, the movie draws on the canon that director Kane Parsons created in his YouTube series set in huge and disquieting empty rooms, which in turn was inspired by a photo of a former furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
In the movie, the titular rooms are reached through a mysterious door in the furniture store Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, which is said to be at Capitol Avenue and McKee Road in San Jose.
It’s unlikely that the neighborhood is a hangout for Parsons; his Bay Area stomping ground is a couple hours away. Now 20 years old, he attended Marin School of the Arts, on the Novato High School campus, and his videos show recognizable North Bay sites.
But the sinister tech elements of “Backrooms” made Silicon Valley the natural choice for the movie’s setting, and a perpetually going-out-of-business furniture store would not be out of place at the real-world Capitol & McKee, an area of strip malls and discount stores.
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The corner is the site of the Capitol Square shopping center — tenants include Ross, Marshalls and Cardenas market — and a more downscale mall across the street with Grocery Outlet, Dollar Tree and a space that used to house a Fallas Discount Store.
In the movie, Coquitlam — a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia — stands in for San Jose. The building used for Cap’n Clark’s exterior is a defunct furniture liquidator.
The film’s promotion has given Cap’n Clark’s a real phone number for its fax machine: (408) 357-2875. Fans who tested it have reported receiving a fax-back flyer for Cap’n Clark’s or for South Bay Bulletin Board, another “Backrooms” invention.
Film distributor A24 is selling a Cap’n Clark’s T-shirt ($40) that affirms the San Jose cred, with the 408 number and “Santa Clara Valley, CA” prominently displayed. Locals might quibble with the description of the store as “right off State Route 680.” That freeway is not a state highway but part of the interstate system.
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