'Backrooms' Review: The Emptiness is the Point

The next generation of horror is here.

May 28, 2026

In 2019, an image of dread and liminal space horror blipped into existence. Uploaded to 4chan, a photo of an empty office space with faded wallpaper, yellowing carpet, and dim fluorescent lights tapped into the public’s fear of loneliness and the uncanny. Bolstered by the isolation of 2020 (all that unfortunate business), these ‘backrooms’ would take on a life of their own; spawning an ecosystem of Internet lore, video games, and a web series. At this pivotal moment, 16-year-old Kane Parsons emerged as a founding father of a larger story that would connect these threads and inspire a fascination in abandoned spaces.

Now in his feature debut, Backrooms, Parsons is the latest in a surge of YouTube creators joining the major players of Hollywood horror to bring this unsettling dimension to cinemas. Backrooms finds furniture-store owner, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), at a threshold. A threshold of anger and loss of identity, and at the literal threshold of a strange portal that separates his world from… something else entirely. When Clark disappears, his therapist (Renate Reinsve) follows his ramblings and warnings to that very same entry-point.

To understand Backrooms is to appreciate the essence of the “creepypasta"; a term for the unique sort of horror legend that emerges out of forums and chain emails (remember those?), and continues to grow as long as there is a community to feed into it. While it is not required to study up on the lore that inspires Backrooms, it can go a long way in helping the viewer appreciate exactly what Parsons has accomplished.

The essence is where Backrooms excels. It is uncomfortable. Equal parts vast and claustrophobic. Backrooms isn’t particularly scary, in the traditional sense, but it is disconcerting. Anything feels possible and even the presence of nothing rattles the viewer. Parsons has distilled exactly what made the original 4chan post a legend and translated that feeling perfectly to the big screen.

What Backrooms lacks is a narrative. Which, as it turns out, is essential to the moviegoing experience. Perhaps it’s the natural limitation of the medium. Films are not creepypastas. They’re not continuous forums or bites of short video. The expectation of a film is that even the most abstract, experimental tales have questions to answer and some direction. At a skeletal level, Backrooms has no structure to build on. What’s there is flimsy and uninteresting. While there is an argument that the ambiguity and emptiness of the plot is precisely why the film’s general unease seeps so effectively into your bones (fair), it still stands that Backrooms is just sort of there.

While seasoned liminal space horror fans and initiated members of the original backstory may go for it, Backrooms is totally inaccessible to a potential new audience.

Fittingly, Backrooms is difficult to place and, by its very nature, exists at opposite sides of the scale. On the one hand, the story is content to float off into its own oblivion and is a deeply unsatisfying watch. On the other hand, Kane Parsons shows a remarkable visual eye and delivers one of pop culture’s most surreal fixtures with finesse and cutting attention to detail. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Rating: 6/10

Slip into Backrooms on May 29, 2026. Only in theaters.

This piece is a part of Simply Cinema’s A24 Project. An exploration of all things A24 — from its beginnings, to its current status as the cinephile’s favorite studio.

Check out the complete project here and consider becoming a subscriber!