Every now and then, a film comes along with a premise so interesting that it sparks your imagination before you ever even watch it. There’s something satisfying about a movie with a unique concept that utilizes it perfectly. Backrooms, unfortunately, is not one of those films. For as intriguing as its big idea is, ultimately it falls short of its own inventiveness. It’s a shame, because much of the movie is done well and there really is so much potential, it just never quite comes together.

The plot revolves around failed architect and furniture store owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who discovers another dimension hidden in the basement of his store. This area, the titular Backrooms, is a seemingly endless office space filled with rooms and furniture that don’t always make complete sense. Chairs are stuck together, doors are the wrong size, and various other items seem to be clipping through the floors and walls. Worst of all, Clark quickly discovers that he may not be alone in this space, and he most certainly isn’t safe.

There may be no movie this year I want to love more on premise alone. A never-ending liminal space that’s not quite normal and filled with hidden danger is so perfect for horror storytelling. Yet, I left the theater feeling that director Kane Parsons, who also created the web-series the film is based on, just didn’t get everything he could have out of the setting. Less of the movie than I’d like even takes place in the alternate dimension, with a good chunk of the story focusing on Clark and his therapist Mary’s (Renate Reinsve) day-to-day lives in the real world.

The parts that are set in the Backrooms themselves are plenty creepy, and the entire production team deserves credit for making a wonderfully weird and unsettling set. The design of basically everything in the film is meant to be mundane but filled with just enough mistakes to make the audience uncomfortable. It’s perfect. Disappointingly, the movie doesn’t really use that much of it. Outside of an excellent sequence early on of Clark exploring and then a big chase scene at the end, most of the action takes place in singular rooms. There’s very little moving about going on. One of the most terrifying things about the dimension is its scale, and I think it’s a waste not to demonstrate that better.

The script does little to help either. The dialogue is often silly and has characters outright repeating their motivations again and again, lest the audience forget that Clark’s wife left him or Mary’s mother was crazy. When the actual story moves along, it does so with far too many stops and starts, leaving many events to happen off-screen. It’s great to surprise your audience but jerking them around and hiding the actual narrative is lazy. Maybe a satisfying ending could have helped, but I can’t say we get one of those either. The film sort of just ends, and very little is properly resolved.

I believe Parsons has a real future as a horror director. There’s so much potential in Backrooms and he does great work with so many aspects of the film. The atmosphere is perfect, the cinematography is solid, and he gets good performances out of his actors. I’m just not sure the movie is that interesting or scary. Given the inventiveness and built-in creepiness of the setting, it seems tragic that it goes to waste. If there are alternate dimensions, I hope one of them has a better version of this movie.