Liminal Spaces
Empty places that feel familiar yet wrong. Transitional environments—hallways, pools, neighborhoods—stripped of people and frozen in uncanny stillness.
Liminal spaces became an internet phenomenon after the Backrooms creepypasta went viral in 2019. The aesthetic captures places of transition—spaces you pass through but never stay—rendered unsettling by their emptiness. Fluorescent-lit hallways, abandoned malls at 3AM, empty swimming pools with no exit. These environments appear across horror games from POOLS to Dreamcore to The Exit 8.
The eeriness comes from the uncanny valley of architecture—familiar places that subtly deviate from reality. A schoolhouse should be full of students. A neighborhood should have people. When they're empty, something feels deeply wrong.