There is something uniquely unsettling about walking into a place that looks completely ordinary but somehow feels wrong.
That is the feeling at the heart of Backrooms, the 2026 horror movie directed by Kane Parsons. Based on the internet-born Backrooms concept and Parsons’ viral short-film series, the movie takes a strange piece of online horror culture and turns it into a full-length psychological science-fiction horror story. The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell, and runs for about 1 hour and 50 minutes.
My biggest question before watching it was simple: Could the Backrooms actually work as a movie?
After watching it, I think the answer is yes, but probably not for the reasons some people might expect.
The Backrooms concept was already terrifying
The original idea behind the Backrooms is incredibly simple.
You somehow slip out of reality and end up in an endless maze of yellow walls, old carpet, fluorescent lights and empty rooms. There is no obvious destination. No clear escape. Just the constant buzzing of lights and the terrifying possibility that you are not alone.
That simplicity is what made the concept so effective on the internet.
Kane Parsons understood this very well when he began making his Backrooms videos as a teenager. His original work became a viral YouTube phenomenon before eventually becoming the foundation for this feature film.
And I think that history is important because Backrooms does not feel like a random Hollywood studio trying to cash in on an internet trend.
It feels like the filmmaker who helped define the modern version of the concept finally got the opportunity to make the movie he wanted.
My first reaction: this place is creepy
The production design is probably one of the strongest parts of the movie.
The yellow walls.
The empty corridors.
The repetitive rooms.
The fluorescent lighting.
The strange architecture.
Everything looks familiar enough to make you uncomfortable, but unfamiliar enough to make you question where you are.
That is the magic of liminal horror.
It doesn’t necessarily need a monster jumping out of a dark corner.
Sometimes an empty hallway is enough.
In fact, one of the things I appreciated most about Backrooms is that it understands that too much darkness can actually make horror less frightening.
When everything is dark, you expect something scary to appear.
But when the room is brightly lit and you can see everything, yet you still feel that something is terribly wrong, that can be much more disturbing.
The Backrooms takes advantage of that feeling.
The movie is more than a monster movie
If you are expecting 110 minutes of people running around while some giant creature chases them, this movie may surprise you.
Backrooms is much more interested in atmosphere, mystery and psychological tension.
The official premise is deliberately vague: a strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.
From there, the movie gradually builds its strange world rather than immediately explaining everything.
And I think that was the right decision.
One of the easiest ways to destroy the Backrooms would have been to explain every single thing.
Where exactly is it?
Who created it?
Why does it exist?
What are all the creatures?
What are the rules?
What happens if you reach the end?
If the movie answered every question, the Backrooms would probably become less mysterious.
Instead, the film allows uncertainty to remain part of the horror.
Chiwetel Ejiofor gives the movie weight
Chiwetel Ejiofor was an excellent choice for the lead.
His character, Clark, is not presented as some fearless action hero who immediately knows what to do when things go wrong.
He feels like an ordinary person thrown into something completely impossible.
That makes the situation more believable.
When Clark encounters the Backrooms, the reaction isn’t simply, “Let’s defeat the monster.”
It is more like, “What the hell is happening?”
And honestly, that is probably how most people would react.
Ejiofor brings a seriousness to the movie that helps prevent the strange premise from becoming silly.
There is also Renate Reinsve, whose character adds another emotional dimension to the story. The movie isn’t simply interested in what happens inside the Backrooms; it is also interested in the people affected by them.
That makes the film feel more human than the original internet shorts could.
This is where the movie differs from the YouTube series
For me, this is probably the most interesting part of the entire project.
The original Backrooms videos worked because they were short, mysterious and atmospheric.
You didn’t need a complicated story.
You could simply watch someone walk through a strange environment and allow your imagination to do the rest.
A feature film cannot rely on that alone.
At some point, you need characters.
You need emotional stakes.
You need a reason for the audience to care about what happens.
Parsons and writer Will Soodik therefore had to expand the concept into something much bigger. The result is a movie that puts considerably more attention on its human characters while still maintaining the unsettling nature of the Backrooms. A24’s own discussion with Parsons explains that the feature was designed to move beyond the found-footage limitations of the online series and give the concept more direct character-driven storytelling.
And I think that was the correct approach.
Simply making the YouTube series longer would not have worked.
The sound design deserves attention
Another thing that works extremely well is the sound.
The Backrooms should sound uncomfortable.
The buzzing lights.
The distant noises.
The silence.
The echoes.
The strange sounds that you cannot immediately identify.
Sound can make an empty room feel occupied.
That is especially important in a movie where the environment itself is supposed to make you nervous.
Sometimes you are waiting for something to appear, but nothing does.
And that waiting becomes the horror.
I actually think Backrooms understands this better than many modern horror films that rely heavily on jump scares.
Does it have problems?
Absolutely.
For me, the biggest challenge with Backrooms is that the concept is stronger than the conventional movie structure surrounding it.
The original Backrooms idea is almost perfect as an internet horror concept because it does not need a traditional three-act structure.
You are trapped.
You don’t know why.
You don’t know where you are.
You don’t know if there is an exit.
That’s enough.
But once you turn that into a feature film, the story has to become more complicated.
Characters need motivations.
There need to be discoveries.
There needs to be progression.
And whenever the movie becomes too focused on explaining the larger mythology, some of that original mystery becomes weaker.
That doesn’t ruin the movie for me, but I did find myself thinking that the simplest parts of Backrooms were sometimes the scariest.
The practical sets were impressive
One of the wildest things about the production is that the filmmakers reportedly built more than 30,000 square feet of Backrooms sets for the movie. Parsons has even spoken about people—including himself, getting lost on the set.
That sounds almost like something that would happen inside the movie.
And visually, the decision pays off.
There is something different about watching real actors physically move through enormous practical environments rather than having everything generated digitally.
The world feels tangible.
You can almost smell the old carpet.
You can almost hear the fluorescent lights.
You can almost feel how exhausting it would be to walk through the same-looking corridor for hours.
That physicality makes the horror more convincing.
Is Backrooms actually scary?
For me, yes, but it is a particular type of scary.
This isn’t necessarily the kind of horror that will have you screaming every five minutes.
It is more psychological.
It gets into the fear of being lost.
The fear of isolation.
The fear that reality isn’t as stable as you thought.
And perhaps most importantly, the fear of being somewhere that doesn’t seem to have an end.
That last part is what makes the Backrooms concept so powerful.
Imagine walking for hours and seeing the same yellow walls.
You turn left.
Another corridor.
You turn right.
Another room.
You keep moving.
Nothing changes.
You begin to wonder whether you are actually making progress.
That is terrifying.
My verdict
I went into Backrooms wondering whether a viral internet horror concept could survive the transition to Hollywood.
I think Kane Parsons proved that it can.
The movie isn’t perfect, and I don’t think every decision will work for everyone. Some viewers may prefer the simplicity of the original YouTube videos, while others may enjoy having actual characters and a larger story attached to the mythology.
Personally, I think the movie works best when it remembers one simple rule:
The less you understand about the Backrooms, the scarier they become.
The atmosphere is excellent.
The production design is impressive.
The performances give the story emotional weight.
The sound design adds another layer of tension.
And the fact that the movie came from a concept created by a teenager on the internet makes the entire journey even more remarkable.
Kane Parsons went from making Backrooms videos online to directing a feature film released by A24, with actors such as Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve leading the cast.
That alone is an incredible filmmaking story.
My rating: 8/10
Backrooms isn’t just another horror movie built around a scary creature.
It is a movie about a place.
A place that shouldn’t exist.
A place that looks ordinary.
A place that seems endless.
And perhaps the most frightening thought of all is this:
What if the world you know has spaces you were never supposed to find?
That is where Backrooms gets under your skin.
And for me, that is why it works.
James
