Backrooms

Backrooms is the big budget adaptation of a creepypasta that took off online 4 years ago, creating this rather grandiose mythology generated from online furvor. It's also one of three tentpole horror films kicking the life out of the 2026 summer blockbuster movies that were supposed to be tentpoles alongside Obsession and Hokum.

Out the gate, the opening audio is horrendous. I know it's intentional but it's channeling the Dark Knight Rises level of "what did they say" for the entire opening.

Kane Parsons, the writer / director was 20 years old when he made this, four years after he uploaded "The Backrooms" to YouTube from his bedroom using nothing but free VFX software. It accumulated over 75 million views and spawned a full web series. So let's maybe cut a little slack for lack of experience. But James Wan has his hands in it, so maybe it's not deserved.

Past that rough start, Backrooms settles into something unsettling. It gives off a Blair Witch cinematography style, not just because it's found footage and handheld, but in the specific way Parsons composes shots, directs his actors, and swings the camera. There's an analog, homemade quality that feels less like a stylistic choice and more like a genuine attempt. It also feels like a twisted and grotesque version of Multiplicity, with each copy of a copy getting more and more distorted.

The set design is extraordinary. Whoever those designers are, this was their dream gig. The endless yellow corridors, the fluorescent hum, the rooms that look almost right but not quite, all of it (I believe) is physically constructed and present. Parsons and crew have realized their vision with a fidelity that's impressive in its aesthetic and endless possible combinations.

But things start to fade quickly, an hour in, it's more an interesting concept than an interesting movie. Which is an honest criticism about atmospheric horror as a genre, in my mind. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark is ok but not overly likeable. He's a bad husband, a bad pirate, and presumably a bad human in the end. Renate is his therapist Dr. Mary Kline, who gets pulled into the Backrooms herself, does good work with underdeveloped material she's given. Mark Duplass shows up as a shady Async employee, and is exactly as ominous and foreboding as the movie needed. You can tell he's holding back, probably against his will, but he's pushing the boundaries of what he can and can't say, he feels like the only true human element in the film. Wanting both answers and to protect Mary.

Now...about those questions the film leaves you with.

Is Backrooms just House of Leaves? Kind of. Not exactly, but the DNA is unmistakable. An impossible architectural space that functions as a psychological trap, found documentation, an investigation that consumes the investigators. Whether that's influence or imitation probably depends on how charitable you're feeling. I lean more towards imitation. But this is probably the closest we could ever get to HoL being put to film successfully.

The rooms being memories is actually addressed but not really explained. They believe the Backrooms function as an echo chamber for memories, which is why places and things from the real world appear imperfect or misremembered. But where do they come from originally? What force created the memory copies? What are the rules. It's fine to be vague but I feel like there's no central reasoning or explanation.

There's still lots that I didn't catch answers to, like the collapsed tower billboard, the handprints (I get this one but don't understand why its there other than as maguffin), and the connection to the memories hidden down there like the caveman/voyager disk, how did it get back here? Is it real? Does that hint at aliens? Who's remembering these things. The final shot pans down through several layers of the Backrooms to show a distorted version of Mary trapped in the supernatural purgatory, which is either terrifying or a sequel tease, idk. Is the original Mary gone or is this one simply waiting it's chance like the giant pirate Clark?

The ending is abrupt. Which is either the film committing to its tone or the film not knowing how to close what it opened. I'm still not sure which. You can pretty plainly see, this film needs multiple viewings to appreciate and digest. But the movie is slow and plodding, which might detract from rewatchings. I'm not exactly excited to hop back in.

Overall, Backrooms is a film that values dread over resolution, atmosphere over plot, and texture over clarity. For the some, that's exactly what they want. For others it's an unsettling story that doesn't quite deliver. I'm in the middle at this point, but I'm glad they took a shot and hope it leads to more low budget risks. It's deep (I think) but not that interesting and I worry not planned out that well. I could be wrong and it's all meticulously planned and I'll eat my words after Backrooms IV: The New Door, comes out in a few years.