The concept of the Backrooms began with the online discussion of liminal spaces, where people shared images of eerie hallways, empty storefronts, abandoned malls and 3D-rendered pool rooms. This concept of the Backrooms became capitalized on, as online interest began to pique in its potential to create feelings of horror and unease. Discussion around the Backrooms emerged to encompass the unnerving familiarity of in-between spaces. If liminal spaces are “the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next,’” as the description of their subreddit, r/LiminalSpace describes, the backrooms represent the horror that can exist in these spaces. In an attempt to bring to life this idea, fans of these liminal spaces began creating fan lore featuring monsters, or entities, alongside creating horror Roblox and Steam games in their likeness.
One particular creator, Kane Parsons, began uploading Backrooms content on YouTube under the username Kane Pixels in 2022, such as the video titled “The Backrooms (Found Footage),” which garnered over 82 million views. By 2026, Parsons found himself in the director’s seat of a film adaptation of the series titled “Backrooms,” released May 29.
The original and most popular Backroom photo was taken on the second floor of a hobby store in Oshkosh, Wis. This image of a fluorescently lit, empty yellow room would be the catalyst for many indie horror games, alongside the main backroom setting, for Parsons’s film.
Many of Parsons’s scenes of the Backrooms feature the yellow walls of the original image. But, they then follow the path that many Backrooms indie games take. Like the games, the “Backrooms” scenes show a collection of rooms that branch off from the original room, rather than being contained to one. Through this approach, the audience is exposed to some of the other popular backrooms which are treated as connected to the original room, such as the pool rooms.
Parsons remains true to the inclusion of the monsters, or entities, which have been popularized in online fan lore and games to reside in the Backrooms. However, in Parsons’s film these Entities take the form of “still lifes.” This is the Backrooms’ attempt to remember real people — misremembering and recreating them as distorted versions of themselves. The still lifes are not hostile like the entities of the lore, however, and simply watch the other characters who enter the Backrooms. Only Captain Clark, a manifestation of the worst attributes of the film’s protagonist, Clark, (Chiwetel Ejiofor), makes an attempt to be hostile to those who enter the Backrooms and eventually eats Clark himself.
Much of the film centers around the idea of the Backrooms as a space that formed out of failed attempts to properly remember the world above ground. Characters frequently refer to the space as being “like describing a dog to someone who’s never seen one, then asking them to draw one.” This take on the Backrooms capitalizes on the psychological horror of the uncanny by taking the familiar and distorting it. They use the instinctual human fear surrounding things that look near human, but are off in some way. The uncanny effect is especially apparent in the still lifes.
Despite “Backrooms” being A24’s highest-grossing opening thus far and Parsons becoming the youngest filmmaker, at age 20, to open at No. 1 in theaters, the film’s reception online appears to have been relatively mixed. On the social media platform X, user @LeesiBB shared their dissatisfied perspective on the film.
“Went in with an open mind because i love backrooms content but beyond a shadow of a doubt this is probably the worst movie [I’ve] ever seen in theaters, and most definitely the worst film [I’ve] seen opening day. what a disappointment lol,” the user wrote in a post.
Others online appear to be defending the film, however. In a YouTube video uploaded by Charles Christopher White Jr., known online as penguinz0, the content creator refutes the idea of “Backrooms” being a disappointing film.
“I’d find extra hours in the day just to make jokes about The Backrooms,” White Jr. said at the 3:42 mark. “I played so many of the games as a meme because the games are such dog s***. And yet, I ended up liking this film cause I thought it did what the other content failed to do for me, which is get me invested in it, make me care.”
While some viewers felt that the film does not capture the classic Backrooms feeling, others appear to be satisfied with how it sets itself apart from the original online content, fan lore and games.
It appears to set itself apart from other horror films as well. It lacks heavy reliance on jumpscares and monsters, instead focusing on the psychological horror of t an almost infinite maze of familiar rooms, filled with almost human creatures. This is reinforced through the lack of hostility from the still lifes when met by the characters who enter the Backrooms, with the only hostile still life being Captain Clark. Through this, Parsons illustrates that the goal of the film is to unsettle the viewer through the space itself, rather than to simply invoke fear through the use of jumpscares from various monsters or the still lifes.
Juliana Maldonado is an Arts and Entertainment Intern for the spring 2026 quarter. She can be reached at jrmaldo1@uci.edu.
Edited by Avani Kumar and Tracy Sandoval
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