Video summary
The video explores the concept of transforming the iconic horror setting known as "Backrooms Level Zero" into a version defined by "Millennial Gray," shifting the source of terror from visceral disgust to bleak monotony. Traditionally, the Backrooms are characterized by urine-colored chevron wallpaper, wet brown carpeting, and buzzing fluorescent lights that create an immediate sense of unease. The creator argues that if these specific ingredients were removed and replaced with the aesthetic preferences of millennials, the resulting environment would still be terrifying, albeit in a different way. To demonstrate this transformation, the host first adopts a stereotypical millennial outfit, complete with a red plaid shirt, beanie, and an apron featuring nonsensical snarky text, setting the stage for a digital editing process that strips away all character and color from the original image.
The editing process begins by replacing the distinctive yellow walls with plain, lifeless gray drywall, effectively removing any design or pattern to create a sterile atmosphere. The creator explicitly rejects the use of artificial intelligence for this task, insisting on manual Photoshop work to preserve the fun of creating art imperfectly and arguing that AI diminishes creativity by leveling the playing field for those who are not naturally artistic. Following the wall treatment, the original wet carpet is replaced with nondescript gray concrete or luxury vinyl plank flooring, a material choice common in modern construction but one that feels alien and unsettling in an infinite space. The lighting is also altered from buzzing fluorescent tubes to rows of bright, recessed "pop" lights set into white drop ceilings, further enhancing the feeling of a cold, uninviting new-build home.
To complete the aesthetic, the video adds quintessential millennial architectural tropes that contribute to the horror element, such as stark white baseboards with no indentations and a complete absence of personal touches like picture frames or chair railings. The creator notes that while these elements might seem mundane in a normal house, their presence in an infinite, endless space creates a sense of horrific emptiness and suburban monotony. Finally, the scene is populated with large, lifeless signs featuring typical millennial coffee shop slogans like "Wine Mom" or "Braided Hair Don't Care," which serve as giant, hollow husks on the walls. The final result is described as "horror incarnate," a perfect mixture of lifelessness and emptiness that suggests that wandering through an infinite version of a generic suburban home could be just as terrifying as the original yellow-walled nightmare.
Read the full video transcript
We all know what backrooms level zero
usually looks like. Its ingredients are
pretty simple. To a gigantic infinite
warping complex, first you must add
urine colored wallpaper with a weird
enigmatic design on it. Then after that,
you get down to the floor and you get
the wetest, most moist carpet that you
can possibly find. And it also has to be
like poop brown [music] color. And then
you put that on the floor. And finally,
you have to find the starkkest, most
disgustingly buzzing loud lights to put
in the ceiling above you. Uh that way
your ear is never going to break from
the noise. And if you mix all those
things together, you get the back rooms.
Yay. And also, you get uh my career.
Thanks. But what if just for a second,
we took away all of those ingredients,
changed them up, and instead we made the
back rooms millennial gray like this?
Wow, this is bad. What if we took away
those nice, eclectic, unique yellow
walls and changed them to lifeless gray
walls with nothing on them at all? If we
did all this, if we millennial grade the
backrooms, would it still be scary?
That's what we're going to figure out
here in today's video. If that sounds
cool, please stick around for the next
10 minutes or so as I get into all of
this. Hopefully, you're entertained. You
might you might just be entertained,
maybe. But if we're going to millennial
graphify the back rooms, I I can't be
dressed like this. Uh we got to we got
to suit up and become the full
millennial version of myself. Of course,
we need a little red plaid shirt, maybe
even a beanie. And how about we grab an
apron with some weird snarky comment
that means actually nothing. And let's
throw that on, too.
If I wasn't bald, my hair would be in a
man bun, but you have to settle for some
scruff and a mustache. And now we can
millennial grayify the backrooms. Let's
do it.
Okay, here we are dalled up in the
millennial attire. Let's hop into
Photoshop and let's do this. At the
start, we have the level zero image.
This is the unadulterated photo that was
taken in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. You guys
know the photo. You've seen this before,
I assume. The first order of business
that we're going to have to do to change
this to Millennial Gay is to get rid of
all of this character in the walls. You
see here, you see how there's like uh
you see how there's chevron wallpaper
and you see how there's color and design
and stuff. We got to get rid of all
that, okay? It's all got to go. All of
it. Of course, it's it's not just
millennial gray. You can't just have
that color. These people that paint with
this color, they like to call it
agreeable gray or moonlight mist gray or
some BS like that. That being said, we
are going to cover these walls with just
plain gray drywall. We are going to take
this gray from the color palette uh
because I think that is probably the
closest to millennial gray. And we're
just going to come in here and we are
just going to doll all of these walls
up. We're going to add some shadows as
well, of course, to make it look more
realistic. But this is what we're going
to go for off the rip. Kind of just a
base light gray. Now, in order to make
it more realistic looking, I am going to
add some shadows beneath the walls to
kind of give it that oomph, you could
say. And that's going to be important
later because it's going to add depth to
it. Now, I'm sure some of you watching
this video that have low brain cells are
saying, "Brugley, why don't you just go
into AI? Why don't you just AI it to
make the back rooms gray in AI?" I have
a brain. I have a brain. It's up here.
My My brain's in my head. And I think AI
diminishes all creativeness. It
dewimsifies everything that's fun in
life. It takes the aspect of art in
which you are bad at the beginning,
which most people are. It takes that out
of the equation. Being bad at art and
creating crafts and little things is fun
and being bad is fun. AI tries to level
the playing field, but instead it just
attracts all the dumb people that don't
want to create. Bring back bad Photoshop
and reject AI. Okay, so I'm liking the
star we have here with their gray walls.
I have lived in millennial gray houses
before. My backroom's neighborhood house
that you've all seen on this channel a
million times, that was a millennial
gray house. Okay, it was. So, I'm
something of a pro [music] if you can't
tell. Now, we'll edit this back wall in
a second cuz it kind of blends in with
the floor. But for now, we got to do
something about these yellow carpets.
Okay, carpet is not something
millennials like at all. They hate it.
Actually, they despise it. You would be
hardressed to walk into a new
construction house and see carpet
already installed. They only use rugs,
okay? They don't like carpet. Usually
they go for some kind of cheap concrete
finish or LVP planks or something, but
we're just going to go with some
nondescript flooring here because
really, every time I walk into a
Millennial Grey House, I don't even know
what I'm walking on. Okay. Is it rubber?
Is it wood? Is it fake wood? Is it fake
wood and rubber? Is it concrete with
fake wood on top? I don't know. So, I
think a good first step is going to be
just to kind of tone this down. Let's
get it nice and gray. Kind of mute all
semblances of life and color. We don't
need that. We're a millennial house.
Now, I'm getting the sense that this is
still going to be terrifying. And I also
have the feeling that de yellowing the
back rooms is not necessarily going to
make it unscary. I think it's a hell in
and of itself to wander around an
infinite millennial house. Personally,
we'll see where this goes. So, next up
on the list, now that we have this
nondescript gray concrete floor, which
millennial houses love for some reason,
I think I'm going to get rid of these
nice lights up here. These nice lights.
Uh, we don't use these. These are school
lights. What millennials prefer are
pocket recessed lights that are brighter
than a sun. Every time you look at these
lights, you think you're staring into
the face of an angel. It hurts. So,
we're just going to have these nice and
straight up here. And we're going to use
the the masking tool to get rid of these
real quick. Just get rid of all these
little puppies. We don't we don't need
them. We don't need them. We're going to
take this layer. And these are our new
pop lights. We're going to have two rows
of these recessed lights because that's
how many rows they put in their living
rooms in these new builds. It's
horrible. I I actually hate them. I
can't stand them. But here we go. We're
starting to look pretty uh pretty modern
construction vibes. Wouldn't you think?
So, now that we've got rid of all that
brown carpet and we've uh we've added
this very bleak concrete floor in the
theme of the millennial style, uh I want
to make sure these shadows look okay. I
think it looks much Yes. much better uh
with these shadows. So that's going to
be that's perfect. That's working really
well for us. These pop lights up here,
these kind of recessed lights look
really good. I was going to add a
industrial rebar exposed pipe ceiling
like all the other millennial stuff in
burger restaurants. You've seen the
ones. But I think that here in these
houses, you know, houses don't really
have that. They do have these white drop
ceilings, though. My parents basement
has one. You've probably seen it before.
We're going to keep that. Think it looks
good. Next up, to make these walls a
little bit more decorated, we're going
to do a classic millennial trope. We are
going to put some white baseboards on
the bottom of the walls here, right
here, and right here. Because apparently
that's all they need. If you walk into a
new construction or a millennial house
for that matter, you will see no Wayne
Scotting. You will see no picture
framing, no chair railing. You'll see
white baseboards like this with like no
indentions on the walls. This This is
the extent right here. This is it. Okay,
now that we have these baseboards, it's
really starting to take shape in my
opinion. It really is beginning to look
like the interior of hell. And honestly,
the more I get into this edit, the more
I realize it would be horrific in its
own way to be stuck in the millennial
rooms, I'm going to call them, from now
on, because this is bleak, guys. This is
bad. It might be worse on your eyeballs
than the yellow. I can't even lie. I
think the one thing I need to add to
this to tie it all together would be
some decoration. And we all know how
millennials like to decorate their
homes. So, I'm just going to imagine
that the millennial back rooms, the
millennial rooms would use the same
method. And we're going to put a uh a
sign here like this. But first, coffee.
Everybody knows how these these places
love to use their little little snarky
sayings. Wine mom. Braided hair don't
care. Gather. We all know how that is. I
think it would be scary to walk around
the back rooms and it would look like
this and then just see these gigantic
lifeless husks of signs on the walls.
That's a horror in and of itself. But
now that we have all this stuff kind of
added together, I think we're looking
pretty millennial. Um, pretty millimal.
Milliminal. You get it, guys? All right.
I'm thinking it looks pretty good. Let's
go ahead and look at our final product.
And this, my friends, is the millennial
rooms. the milliminal rooms. As you can
see, it's a perfect mixture of
lifelessness mixed with emptiness mixed
with the horrific monotony of suburban
millennial life. This is horror
incarnate, and I hate everything about
it. Thank you for watching the video.
Hopefully, you did enjoy me turning the
back rooms into the millennial rooms. If
you did, leave a like if you want me to
do this even more with more levels and
stuff. If you like the concept, also
leave a like. pretty much just leave a
like on this video, please. Love and
appreciate each and every one of you.
Hopefully, you enjoyed this and I'll see
you later. Bye.