There’s something deeply ironic about the fact that one of the most unsettling horror films in years began as a teenager messing around with Adobe After Effects and Blender in his bedroom.
While most sixteen-year-olds were busy posting blurry selfies, failing algebra, or arguing online about which superhero could beat up which other superhero, Kane Parsons accidentally created the beginnings of a cinematic nightmare powerful enough to make people afraid of fluorescent lighting and musty office carpeting.
And honestly? What sums up modern society better than that?
With BACKROOMS, Parsons takes the viral creepypasta phenomenon that swallowed large chunks of the internet and transforms it into something far more ambitious than a “YouTube horror short.” This isn’t just internet ephemera stretched into feature length. It’s a genuinely unnerving little piece of liminal horror that understands exactly why the original short burrowed into people’s brains like a cursed Windows screensaver from hell.
The setup sounds deceptively simple. Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), owner of the wonderfully ridiculous furniture store Cap’n Dave’s Ottomon Empire — yes, that pun deserves both applause and a restraining order — discovers a hidden portal in the basement of his showroom. Beyond it lies an endless maze of yellow-lit office corridors, empty rooms, buzzing fluorescent lights, and spaces that feel weirdly familiar in the worst possible way.
What makes BACKROOMS so effective is that Parsons never tries to overexplain the horror. Sure, many will be put off by the lack of a clean narrative and logical explanation. Most modern horror films often treat audiences like simpletons who need every step explained and the mystery cleanly solved by the third act. BACKROOMS makes it clear that uncertainty is the entire point.
Parsons’ direction is shockingly confident for a filmmaker barely old enough to legally rent a car. His visual language here does the heavy listing and feels heavily inspired by internet horror aesthetics, experimental arthouse cinema, and even workplace nightmare fuel like "Severance," yet it never feels derivative. Instead, Parsons weaponizes emptiness itself. Long hallways stretch forever. Rooms loop impossibly into one another. Familiar objects appear slightly misplaced, like reality itself copied and pasted the environment incorrectly.
The result is dread-inducing in the purest sense of the word.
And unlike many horror films drowning in gore and noise, BACKROOMS earns its scares quietly. The sound design alone deserves therapy bills sent directly to A24. Every distant hum, every muffled scrape in the darkness, every flicker of fluorescent buzzing feels like the universe itself grinding its teeth. You spend the entire movie waiting for something horrible to emerge from the shadows, which somehow becomes even worse when almost nothing does.
Ejiofor is fantastic as Clark, grounding the surreal horror with genuine emotional weariness. There’s something deeply human about watching a middle-aged furniture salesman wander through an infinite nightmare dimension while looking only mildly more stressed than someone trying to assemble IKEA shelves without instructions. Renate Reinsve also brings incredible vulnerability to psychologist Dr. Mary Kline, whose journey through the BACKROOMS becomes less about solving a mystery and more about confronting emotional voids she’s spent years avoiding.
That’s ultimately why BACKROOMS works so well. Beneath the creepypasta origins and internet mythology lies a film about disassociation, monotony, and the fear that modern life has turned us into ghosts wandering endless hallways of repetition. Homes feel empty. Offices feel hostile. Social media loops endlessly. Life becomes pattern recognition until suddenly you wake up one day, emotionally trapped inside your own routines.
Cheery stuff!
The brilliance of BACKROOMS is that Parsons never forces interpretation. Some viewers will see commentary on societal burnout. Others will interpret it as grief, depression, alienation, or technological numbness. And some people will simply leave terrified of beige carpeting forever.
Either way, BACKROOMS feels like the beginning of something important. Much like The Blair Witch Project captured anxieties specific to its era, Parsons has crafted a horror film deeply connected to the internet generation’s psychological landscape. It’s eerie, hypnotic, deeply unsettling, and occasionally so absurdly relatable that you may never look at an empty office hallway the same way again.
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 110 mins
Director: Kane Parsons
Writer: Kane Parsons
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor; Renate Reinsve; Mark Duplass
Genre: Horror | Sci-fi
Tagline:
Memorable Movie Quote: "Im not saying I don't believe you."
Distributor: A24
Official Site: https://a24films.com/films/backrooms
Release Date: May 29, 2026
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: After a therapist's patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.
