A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom, leading to an endless network of interconnected rooms where time bends and the only thing scarier than getting lost is the sense that something is lying in wait.
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- MrTrivet1d agoThe protagonist describes the experience of this place several times as trying to draw an object you've never seen, based only on someone else's description of it. It's hard to find a better way to sum up what the Backrooms are - something familiar yet impossible to fully grasp. Like a vivid dream that fades from memory moments after waking up. Some might argue that the film takes too long to build its exposition, but for me, that slow exploration was its greatest strength. The yellow, oppressive corridors, illogical half-walls, the constant buzzing of fluorescent lights, and the greeting echoing through the halls in 55 different languages create one of the most unsettling environments in recent horror. This is not a space you simply watch - it's a space you begin to feel trapped in. The final horror sequence genuinely provoked a sense of panic, but the strongest impression comes after the credits roll. The film leaves you wanting more, with questions that may never be answered. What is the purpose of this place? How far does it extend? Is it even possible to understand it? Maybe that is the greatest horror of it all - the idea that some things are simply not meant to be explained, and all we're left with is wandering through the corridors of our own imagination.
- Hipster ZOMBIEJune 1, 2026What began as an anonymous creepypasta on 4chan has now evolved into a full blown feature film with A24’s unsettling adaptation of The Backrooms. Directed by series creator Kane Parsons, the film expands his viral web mythology into a suffocating psychological horror experience that feels less like a traditional movie and more like a waking fever dream you can’t escape. For the uninitiated, The Backrooms is essentially that recurring nightmare where the hallway keeps stretching farther away no matter how fast you walk, blended with the sterile emptiness of abandoned office spaces humming under fluorescent lights. Random junk litters endless yellow corridors, reality folds in on itself, and there’s seemingly no exit. Chiwetel Ejiofor delivers a quietly devastating performance as Clark, a man already trapped in the soul-crushing monotony of his own life before stumbling through a multidimensional doorway into the ominous labyrinth known as the Backrooms. Saying much more would spoil the film’s carefully layered mysteries. Renate Reinsve is equally compelling as Mary, Clark’s therapist, whose own fractured emotional state may be more connected to the Backrooms than the film initially lets on. Rather than relying on cheap jump scares, Parsons leans heavily into atmosphere, existential dread, and the terror of isolation. The result is hypnotic, unnerving, and deeply ambiguous. Its open-ended finale is certain to spark endless debate, especially among longtime fans of the mythos. Some horror audiences may find its slow-burn psychological approach frustrating, particularly those expecting a more conventional scare fest. But for viewers willing to surrender to its strange rhythms and oppressive mood, The Backrooms is one of the most haunting and uniquely unsettling horror films A24 has released in a while.
- Shaydeknight6d agoBackrooms arrives dressed in beautiful scenery and immaculately constructed sets, and yes, the film is visually fantastic. Its depiction of a pocket universe built from forgotten memory echoes is rendered with real craft, and the underlying concept is disturbing in the best sense: a labyrinth with no author and no exit, only the accumulated residue of things people would rather forget. Chiwetel Ejiofor does a wonderful job with his character, though his transformation from a failed, drink-sodden furniture-store owner into whatever he becomes by the film's end happens too quickly and too neatly for my taste. Renate Reinsve also acquits herself well, but her character's arc ultimately felt like scaffolding for a story that didn't need telling, one that never quite pays off the time invested in it. I think the film would have been stronger had it leaned further towards the Blair Witch approach: less explanation, more dread accumulated through absence and implication. Instead, it goes nowhere, much like all the rooms it depicts. What I couldn't get past was the sheer stupidity of the characters when confronted with something plainly impossible. Nobody calls the authorities, nobody seeks out anyone with more knowledge or expertise. Instead, it's a headlong cavalcade into the impossible, followed swiftly by madness, with no thought given to the matter and no reflection offered afterwards. I didn't find the film frightening, apart from the one genuinely unsettling idea at its core: getting lost amid uncharted, endless space and dying slowly of starvation or thirst. That notion has teeth. Unfortunately, the film surrounding it does not. Mostly, I found it a bit boring. There's nothing especially scary here, no real plot to speak of, and no theme worth dissecting. What you get instead is a couple of hours of atmosphere, music, sound design, and characters whose principal function is to wander about and showcase the spaces. The whole enterprise feels like an attempt to capitalize on the Gen Z fixation with creepypasta. There's a valiant effort here to translate what was originally a meme and a game experience into a feature film, but the medium switch simply doesn't work. Backrooms offers plenty of atmosphere but little else.
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Backrooms was released on May 27, 2026.
Backrooms was directed by Kane Parsons.
Backrooms has a runtime of 1h 50m.
Backrooms was produced by Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, James Wan, Michael Clear, Roberto Patino, Kori Adelson, Chris Ferguson, Osgood Perkins, Jenno Topping, Peter Chernin.
A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom, leading to an endless network of interconnected rooms where time bends and the only thing scarier than getting lost is the sense that something is lying in wait.
The key characters in Backrooms are Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Mary (Renate Reinsve), Bobby (Finn Bennett).
Backrooms is rated R.
Backrooms is a Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction film.
Backrooms has an audience rating of 7.4 out of 10.
Backrooms had a budget of $10M.
Backrooms has made $389.7M at the box office.