Backrooms Movie Ending Indicates Pirate Clark Killed Kat, And I Think I Know Why

A24's Backrooms movie kills off Kat in its third act, but exactly how she died maintains some ambiguity, even after the credits roll on the horror hit. Backrooms left a trail of bodies in its wake, including Lukita Maxwell's Kat Taylor and Finn Bennett's Bobby Franklin. Apple TV+'s Shrinking star Maxwell plays Kat, the assistant manager at Cap'n Clark's Ottoman Empire, and girlfriend to Bobby, who Chiwetel Ejiofor's Clark recruits to explore and record the Backrooms.

After descending by rope down a tunnel to capture a lower level of the Backrooms, Bobby was snatched and brutally slaughtered by one of the terrifying realm's creepy entities, presumably Pirate Clark. Kat didn't last much longer, as she was similarly killed shortly, albeit with a little more mystery than her late boyfriend.

How Kat Dies in Backrooms Movie Is a Mystery, but There Are Some Clues

Once Bobby is dragged to his demise with a bloody trail, Kat sprints through the Backrooms in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to save the love of her life. Clark chases after Kat, passing through a red-lit, festive room where he encounters two of Backrooms' Still Life entities for the first time.

But the real action goes down in the pool (kind of), where Clark flees to and puts the camera down on a table when he starts to hear Kat's voice. The pair is separated by a one-way window, through which Kat can still see her furniture store boss, while all he can see is a brick wall.

Things get truly sinister in the found-footage-styled scene as something unseen lifts the camera, and Kat frantically tries to warn Clark to turn around. That is where the scene cuts, and Clark's story jumps forward in time, during which his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline, enters the Backrooms in search of him.

By the time Mary finds Clark, it is too late for both him and his colleague Kat, as he has become a shell of his former self. He has been driven to insanity by the horrors of the Backrooms, blended with his own existing trauma.

With Mary bound with duct tape in the kitchen, Clark opened the fridge to reveal Kat's rotting, lifeless head sitting inside. Clark doesn't exactly explain what happened to Kat, beyond that he "tried to help her." The vague tease paints the picture that more happened off-screen, leading to her death, than meets the eye.

Which Clark Killed Kat? Backrooms' Biggest Secret May Be Extremely Twisted

It's never confirmed who killed Kat in Backrooms, but the most likely answer seems to be Pirate Clark, given that he is behind most of the horrors in A24's latest. Furthermore, when the unseen terror grabs the camera during Kat's final on-screen moments, the figure is clearly tall, all but confirming its identity.

Pirate Clark doesn't seem to be a generic slasher who slays anyone and everyone, as he doesn't kill Clark until Backrooms' climax. By contrast, the Still Life entity almost immediately kills Bobby and was presumably quick to do the same with Kat, despite being face-to-face with Clark well before then.

If it was Pirate Clark, not Clark himself, who killed Kat, that leaves one major elephant in the room: Why did he keep her decapitated head in the fridge? Perhaps he may have clung to Kat's head as a reminder of his guilt for the friend he failed to save or as some twisted coping mechanism. 

Then again, given the extent of mental decline that Clark had reached after an unclear amount of time in the Backrooms, he may well have killed her himself. After all, before his death, Clark had fully embraced life in the Backrooms and was determined for Mary to do the same; he may have killed Kat for her refusal to follow, if, of course, she survived the encounter with Pirate Clark at the pool.

Some theorized the true reason behind Kat's head being in a fridge is even more twisted and may even involve cannibalism. By the time Backrooms concludes, Clark has learned that he can eat the Still Lifes. One has to wonder if he resorted to consuming Kat's remains before then but couldn't bring himself to touch her head, hence why it was the last remaining part of her intact.