Backrooms (film)
2026 film by Kane Parsons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Backrooms is a 2026 American science fiction psychological horror film[6] directed and co-scored by Kane Parsons in his feature-length directorial debut, and written by Will Soodik.[7][8] It is a theatrical addition to Parsons' web series and was inspired by the "Backrooms" creepypasta. In the film, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a furniture store owner, and Mary (Renate Reinsve), his therapist, discover a dimension of seemingly endless liminal spaces accessed through the store's basement. Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell also star.
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- James Wan
- Michael Clear
- Roberto Patino
- Shawn Levy
- Dan Cohen
- Dan Levine
- Osgood Perkins
- Chris Ferguson
- Peter Chernin
- Jenno Topping
- Kori Adelson
| Backrooms | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Kane Parsons |
| Written by | Will Soodik |
| Based on | |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Jeremy Cox |
| Edited by | Greg Ng |
| Music by |
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Production companies |
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| Distributed by | A24 |
Release dates |
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Running time | 110 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million[3] |
| Box office | $350 million[4][5] |
After uploading the web series in January 2022, Parsons was approached by several studios about potentially adapting his series into a feature film. In February 2023, it was officially announced that work had begun on a film adaptation of the Backrooms based on Parsons' videos, with him also directing. Roberto Patino was initially set to write the screenplay, but was replaced by Soodik. Filming began in the summer of 2025 and concluded in August 2025.
Backrooms premiered at the Aero Theatre in Los Angeles on May 7, 2026, and was theatrically released in the United States by A24 on May 29. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $350 million worldwide, becoming A24's highest-grossing film to date and making Parsons the youngest filmmaker to reach number one at the United States box office. Backrooms is the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2026 and the second-highest-grossing horror film of 2026.
Plot
In June 1990, a researcher with the Async Research Institute, Naren Warne, is separated from his group and becomes lost in "the Backrooms", a labyrinthine extradimensional space containing a chaotic expanse of dull yellow rooms, fluorescent lights, long corridors, and malformed furniture. While attempting to call for rescue, Naren is chased and attacked by an unseen entity. Async scientists watch the recovered footage of the incident.
Clark, a failed architect who owns a struggling furniture store, attempts to cope with his alcoholism and crumbling marriage. He sees therapist Mary Kline, who is working through trauma from demolition of her childhood home and her agoraphobic mother's institutionalization. Clark recruits his assistant manager Kat and her boyfriend Bobby to film a television commercial featuring himself dressed as the store’s pirate mascot. Having taken up residence in the store, he notices the lights flickering mysteriously at night and his television functioning erratically. While checking the breaker box, Clark notices a glowing slit in a wall. Approaching it, he falls through and enters the Backrooms. Clark finds Naren's belongings and narrowly escapes back to the store when an unseen entity chases him. An Async scientist, Phil, watches these events on a surveillance camera.
Clark tells Mary about the Backrooms but is met with skepticism. In need of proof, Clark brings Kat and Bobby into the Backrooms to film their discoveries. Bobby explores a steeply sloped corridor and is ambushed and dragged away by an unseen entity; Clark and Kat frantically give chase and are drawn into an unexplored area where they are separated. Clark runs through various bizarre and disordered spaces, eventually encountering two other humanoid entities that chase him to a dead end. He hears Kat call out to him and sets the camera down to look for her. Something picks up the camera as Kat screams for Clark to look behind him.
Some time later, Mary receives a cryptic answering machine message from Clark, who tells her that he is staying in the Backrooms and will not return. Phil watches television with his family and recognizes Clark in a commercial for the furniture store. Concerned about Clark, Mary visits the store and enters the Backrooms herself. An apparently psychotic Clark arrives; hearing an entity approaching, he tries to calm Mary before choking her unconscious.
Mary awakens tied to a chair in a space resembling a dining room occupied by Clark and three malformed, unmoving imitations of humans. They stare impassively as Clark stabs one of them, demonstrates they are made of an edible white substance, and reveals Kat's severed head in a refrigerator. Clark demands that Mary continue their therapy sessions, but she instead scolds Clark, telling him that his wife left him for his inability to take responsibility for his failures. He begins to release Mary, but is interrupted by the arrival of a towering, distorted simulacrum of Clark dressed as the store's pirate mascot. Clark tries to calm the pirate monster, which suddenly kills him and then chases Mary through various chaotic and surreal spaces to a flawed replica of the furniture store. Cornered by the monster, she bashes it in the face using a chunk of concrete from her childhood home. Their struggle triggers an Async gas trap, alerting a group of researchers in hazmat suits; the monster is subdued, and Mary is taken to their research facility.
After recovering, Mary is taken to an interrogation room where she meets Phil. He explains that Async made magnetic resonance imaging machines until they discovered the Backrooms, which have since become their primary research focus. When asked how she came across the Backrooms and what she found there, she repeats Clark's description of it as a faulty, misremembered copy of reality. Mary asks if Async will let her go, but Phil vaguely replies that the decision is not up to him. Inside the Backrooms, a series of spaces are limned by Mary's memories and trauma, ending in a loosely copied interrogation room in which a deformed simulacrum of Mary sits still and silent.
Cast
- Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, a furniture store owner and failed architect[9]
- Renate Reinsve as Dr. Mary Kline, Clark's therapist[10]
- Mark Duplass as Phil, an Async scientist and Backrooms researcher[11]
- Finn Bennett as Robert "Bobby" Franklin, Kat's boyfriend[9]
- Lukita Maxwell as Kathrine "Kat" Taylor, Clark's employee and Bobby's girlfriend[9]
- Avan Jogia as Naren Warne, an Async explorer of the Backrooms[12]
- Robert Bobroczkyi as Pirate Clark, a monstrous entity that resembles Clark in a pirate costume and inhabits the Backrooms[13]
- Krista Kosonen as Nora Kline, Mary's mother[14][15]
Production
Development
On January 7, 2022, Kane Parsons began uploading an anthological video series titled Backrooms onto his YouTube channel Kane Pixels, the concept being based on the internet creepypasta of the same name.[17] When the series became viral, several studios began to show interest in adapting it into a film.[18] In February 2023, a film adaptation was announced as a joint production between A24, Chernin Entertainment, Atomic Monster, and 21 Laps Entertainment, with Parsons directing, making it his feature-length directorial debut, and Roberto Patino writing.[19] The film is produced by James Wan, Shawn Levy, and Osgood Perkins.[20] Chernin Entertainment and A24 co-financed the film for under $10 million.[21][1]
Parsons drew inspiration from the Portal video game franchise, the television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), the films Punishment Park (1971) and One Hour Photo (2002), and the anime series Paranoia Agent (2004) for the film, as well as for his web series.[22] Backrooms maintains a "strict continuity" with the director's YouTube web series.[23]
Casting
In May 2025, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Cristin Milioti entered negotiations to star in the film.[24] Ejiofor was confirmed the following month, with Will Soodik writing the latest draft. Milioti's deal ultimately fell through, and Renate Reinsve was cast in her place in June.[25] Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell and Avan Jogia were added to the cast in July.[26] Jogia was a fan of Parsons' original web series before he was cast. Despite his character's relatively small part, Jogia recalled he and Parsons spent extensive time discussing the lore of the film during production.[27]
Design
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To create the liminal space environments of the Backrooms, Parsons used the 3D software Blender, with production designer Danny Vermette adapting his digital designs for physical construction.[28][29] More than 30,000 square feet (2,800 m2) of Backrooms sets were built across four sound stages for the film, with Vermette comparing the fitting of the sets with Tetris;[30] 37,000 square feet (3,400 m2) of wallpaper and 29,000 square feet (2,700 m2) of carpeting were used, much of it sourced locally in Canada to avoid the impact of U.S. tariffs.[31] The production design also emphasized verticality within the sets to make actors' interactions with the environment more physically challenging.[29] People reportedly got lost on set.[32]
The film's spaces were designed to resemble an "architectural hell" resembling a flawed digital 3D modeling sandbox, where rendering errors—such as misaligned floors, intersecting arches, and objects clipping through walls—create an unsettling sense of unreality. The Backrooms have been described as a prism that refracts its visitors, while its entities appear less like demons than distorted "memories" of the real world, drawing comparisons to the anomalous zone in Annihilation (2018).[33]
Filming
Principal photography began in Vancouver, Canada, on June 30, 2025, under the working title of Effigy.[34] Filming wrapped on August 14, 2025.[35]
Music
Edo Van Breemen and Parsons composed the score for the film.[36] The Boards of Canada track "The Word Becomes Flesh" from their album Inferno plays during the film's end credits.[37] The tracks "Ulterior Motives", a well-known former lostwave song, and "B1 – All that follows is true" by the Caretaker, also feature in the film.[38]
Release
Theatrical
Backrooms premiered at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica on May 7, 2026,[39] and was released in the United States by A24 on May 29, 2026.[40] It was released in South Korea and Italy on May 27.[41][42] An extended version, titled Backrooms: Everything Must Go Edition, was released on July 3, featuring an additional 15 minutes of footage.[43]
Reception
Box office
As of July 5, 2026[update], Backrooms has grossed $190 million in the United States and Canada, and $159 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $350 million.[4][5]
In early May 2026, initial projections had Backrooms grossing around $20 million in its opening weekend.[21] By the week of its release, projections had increased to $40–50 million.[3][44] The film grossed $38.4 million on its first day and went on to debut to $81.5 million domestically and a total of $118 million worldwide, becoming A24's biggest opening weekend.[1] In its second weekend, despite a 70% decline to $26.3 million, Backrooms became A24's highest-grossing film to date, surpassing Marty Supreme (2025), after reaching $213 million worldwide.[45] In its fourth weekend, the film made $7.3 million domestically and $8.5 million internationally, pushing its worldwide box office to $301 million.[46][47]
Parsons became the youngest filmmaker at the time to reach number one at the box office with the film,[16] topping Josh Trank's Chronicle (2012) with its previous record.[1] Chronicle earned $22 million on its opening weekend,[48] and its director Trank, 27 years old at the time of its release, surpassed Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975), with Spielberg being 28 at the time, as the best opening weekend debut for a young filmmaker.[49]
Critical response
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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 291 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "A startlingly assured feature debut from director Kane Parsons, Backrooms bends the liminal spaces that have haunted the internet for years into a horror film that's as mesmerizing as it is terrifying."[50]
Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[51] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it a 68% positive score, with 53% saying they would definitely recommend it.[1]
Amy Nicholson for Los Angeles Times described the film as a feature expansion of Parsons' web series, praising its unsettling visual concept but thought it less a conventional horror film and more a surreal, dreamlike experience of a moving Salvador Dalí painting. She also highlighted the performances of the cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.[52] Dan Bayer of Next Best Picture praised Reinsve and Ejiofor for conveying emotion through subtle acting even when the script is sparse. He also said Parsons arrived "as a fully formed filmmaker", with exceptional control over imagery, pacing, and dread.[53] Sonny Bunch of The Bulwark argued that while the movie can be overly explicit in its themes, its emotional honesty, visual creativity, and psychological depth make it "tremendously effective", "astute", and memorable.[54]
Owen Gleiberman of Variety highlighted Parsons' skill at creating dread through mood, sound design, and eerie visuals rather than conventional jump scares. Gleiberman drew comparisons to Eraserhead (1977), The Shining (1980), and Skinamarink (2022), based on the film's dreamlike horror and use of empty spaces.[55] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian highlighted the film's oppressive atmosphere, striking production design, and unsettling yellow-lit visuals, comparing its themes and style to Japanese horror, Severance (2022–present), and The Rehearsal (2022–present).[56] Angie Han from The Hollywood Reporter praised Backrooms as an unsettling and immersive expansion of the universe, highlighting Parsons' use of labyrinthine spaces, sterile fluorescent lighting, and a constant sense of disorientation to build tension.[57]
Beatrice Loayza of The New York Times wrote that Will Soodik's script "cobbles together ideas about trauma and the mysterious workings of the unconscious, and sprinkles on some metaphors about gentrification as a repression of the past for good measure."[58] Lex Briscuso of IGN wrote that the film was "a truly terrifying cinematic rabbit hole that takes its audience down a twisted and dread-filled path as cerebral in its horror as it is aesthetically pleasing in its design."[59] Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire says Parsons and production designer Danny Vermette "have a hell of a time conjuring spatial uncanniness with images we've never before seen on the big screen."[60]
The Hollywood Reporter's Mia Galuppo and Aaron Couch described the box-office success of Parsons' Backrooms and Curry Barker's Obsession as evidence of the growing influence of YouTube-born filmmakers in the horror genre. They suggested that the films' strong appeal among Generation Z audiences could encourage studios to increasingly seek talent from digital platforms, favoring low-budget, creator-driven productions.[61] Alex Werpin from The Hollywood Reporter reported that, following the success of Backrooms, Reddit is emerging as a destination for agents, executives and studios seeking new intellectual property, talent and story ideas from online communities. Studios believe that engaging with these communities can help build awareness, generate curiosity and create stronger connections with fans.[62] Joseph Bernstein of The New York Times connected the film to Generation Z's "deep unease with life lived online", drawing parallels between the labyrinthine Backrooms and the COVID-19 lockdowns, recommendation algorithms, and generative AI.[63]
Accolades
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astra Midseason Movie Awards | June 30, 2026 | Best Picture | Backrooms | Nominated | [64] [65] |
| Best Director | Kane Parsons | Nominated | |||
| Best Actor | Chiwetel Ejiofor | Nominated | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Renate Reinsve | Nominated | |||
| Best Horror | Backrooms | Runner-up | |||
| Fangoria Chainsaw Awards | October 25, 2026 | Best Wide Release | Pending | [66] | |
| Best First Feature | Pending | ||||
| Best Lead Performance | Chiwetel Ejiofor | Pending | |||
| Best Cinematography | Jeremy Cox | Pending | |||
| Best Score | Kane Parsons and Edo Van Breemen | Pending | |||
| Best Creature FX | Amazing Ape Productions and Werner Pretorius | Pending |
Future
In May 2026, Parsons confirmed that he was not finished with Backrooms and that there were already things "in the works right now". He also mentioned that the YouTube web series would continue.[67] In early June, Deadline Hollywood reported that Parsons was already searching for a screenwriting collaborator to work with on the sequel.[68] Parsons denied shortly after that a screenwriter was already being sought, saying he was "not sure where that got out". He also expressed interest in developing a Backrooms television series.[69]
See also
Notes
- Promotional material and the film itself use the Chernin Entertainment logo.
