“Backrooms,†A24's newest psychological horror film, received its theatrical release May 29, expanding the multiverse of a viral image that first appeared on 4chan, an anonymous online message board known for spawning memes and other viral trends. The original post, first uploaded in 2019 featured yellow wallpaper, dim fluorescent lighting and a lingering sense of existential dread, laying the foundation for what would become an internet phenomenon.
Directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, the film marks the feature-length debut of one of horror's most promising young talents. Based on his found-footage YouTube series of the same name, the film expands on the liminal space multiverse popularized by “creepypasta†mega-fans and casual doomscrollers alike. Though the concept of “Backrooms†isn't Parsons' own, it's his understanding of its lore — the figures that aren't really there, its neverending corridors and a logic that feels slightly off — that brings the internet phenomenon to life.
Visually, the “Backrooms†are somehow both eerie and beautiful. In the first few minutes of the film, viewers are treated with a scene reminiscent of the aforementioned YouTube series. The opening sequence shows an employee navigating the backrooms, rendered through flickering VHS tapes and humming lights that stretch into an uncanny infinity.
It's precisely this unease that sets the tone for the rest of the film: each turn is identical yet subtly wrong, as if the building loops in on itself, trapping both the character and the audience in its logic.
It's no surprise that the resulting film shot on a set spanning 30,000 square feet is the perfect playground for its critically acclaimed cast. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Clark, a troubled, alcoholic architect-wannabe turned furniture store owner, and Renate Reinsve as Dr. Mary Kline, his soft-spoken therapist.
Clark is going through a separation from his wife, and Dr. Kline is battling memories from an accident that happened years past. Together, they navigate the twists and turns of Clark's psyche, until Dr. Kline ultimately ventures to his furniture store after he misses a scheduled appointment. Their problems bubble up until they finally boil over in ways neither of them can fully contain or professionally compartmentalize.
Without spoiling the entirety of the film, it is undeniably easy to say that these two are no strangers to delivering a master-class performance, with Reinsve winning a Best Actress award at Cannes for “Sentimental Value†in 2025 and Chiwetel Enjiofor receiving an Academy Award nomination for his performance in “12 Years a Slave†in 2013.
This proves to be true during a scene in which the two engage in what feels like a twisted lovers' quarrel, going back and forth until the film reaches its climax. It's here where Reinsve and Enjofor truly shine, grounding the film's escalating surrealism in raw emotional weight.
Yes, the film is incredibly stylistic — it's pretty to look at, with Jeremy Cox as the lead cinematographer and one of the key players in creating its liminal dread aesthetic — but beneath its stylistic unease lies something much more human. You don't expect a film from a first-time feature-length director to tackle complex ideas like grief, trauma and the distortion of one's sense of reality — but it does. And it does it well.
It is this emotional grounding that ultimately keeps the film from dissolving into pure abstraction. Even when “Backrooms†starts to feel surreal, every visual and structural choice is tied back into the characters' psyches, allowing the film to explore depths that shouldn't be possible from a concept that initially stemmed from the internet.
In an interview with Interview Magazine, Parsons explained that he does not feel like he is pioneering a new genre of horror. Instead, he feels as if his work serves as a way to process his everyday life.
“That's what art is, and I like to keep it insulated in that manner,†Parsons said. “But if people want to treat it as a symptom of something larger, then I'm very excited to see what they say. I don't want to make those assertions myself.â€
