Empty rooms. No way out. Fear. Panic. No one to help. That’s the world of childhood trauma. And it gets recorded, in old, discarded memories that you push into the Backrooms of your mind. Frozen there, those leftover remnants of the childhood you’ve closed the doors on, as you try to soldier on, just like Dr. Mary Kline. Kane Parson’s Backrooms is the story of trauma …

No one there. That’s the trauma in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value. You can’t feel safe loving someone if there’s no one there as a child—no one who makes you know you have a secure home in their heart. Losing a mom or a dad when you’re little makes you run from love. Live in despair. Walled off. Scared to death that loss is all you’ll find. Just watch Gustav and Nora …

People can be cruel. Even worse is having a voice of shame inside that makes you hang your head low and believe every word they say. That’s Edward in Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man.