Backrooms (2026)

Of course I was going to watch Backrooms.

If you know anything about me, you know that the combination of horror, internet lore, and people online arguing about whether something is brilliant or terrible is basically catnip for my viewing habits. So after seeing Backrooms this weekend, I have thoughts.

But before getting into the movie itself, I think it’s worth talking about where this whole thing came from.

For those unfamiliar, the Backrooms started as internet creepypasta lore centered around endless liminal spaces. Endless yellow hallways. Buzzing fluorescent lights. The feeling that you’ve accidentally stepped outside reality and into a place where the normal rules no longer apply. It’s one of those concepts that’s simultaneously incredibly simple and surprisingly unsettling.

Years ago, a teenager named Kane Parsons took that concept and turned it into a series of YouTube videos. There are around twenty-two of them, and if you watch them all, it takes roughly three hours to get through the entire story.

And if you’re considering seeing the movie, I actually recommend doing exactly that.

Now, fair warning: you’ll probably finish those videos thinking, “I understand approximately sixty percent of what I just watched.”

That’s normal.

The videos are strange, atmospheric, and intentionally mysterious. They’re less concerned with explaining everything than they are with creating a feeling. But having that foundation made the movie experience significantly more rewarding for me because it helped me appreciate what the film was trying to accomplish.

The movie follows a furniture salesman and his therapist who find themselves trapped inside the Backrooms. What unfolds is part survival story, part psychological exploration, and part nightmare fuel as they attempt to navigate an environment that seems determined to reshape both their understanding of reality and their understanding of themselves.

What impressed me most was how effectively the Backrooms become a character in their own right.

The hallways, rooms, endless corridors, and impossible spaces aren’t just locations where things happen. They actively shape the experience. The environment feels alive in a way that’s difficult to explain until you see it. Every corner feels wrong, every empty room feels threatening, and the film manages to make emptiness itself feel suspenseful.

One thing I kept coming back to while watching was the fact that this is the feature film debut of a director who is only twenty years old and whose background primarily comes from YouTube. That alone is remarkable. The fact that he’s managed to take an internet horror concept that many people assumed couldn’t sustain a full-length film and turn it into a major theatrical release makes the accomplishment even more impressive.

Will everyone love this movie?

Absolutely not.

I’ve already seen plenty of reactions from people who found it confusing, frustrating, or too abstract. And I completely understand where those viewers are coming from. This isn’t a movie that carefully explains every detail or hands you a complete roadmap for understanding what’s happening. There are moments where uncertainty is very much a part of the experience.

But, to me, that’s part of what makes this movie so compelling.

The mystery never felt like a flaw – it felt like part of the atmosphere. The unknown is what makes the Backrooms scary in the first place. The moment everything is explained, some of that magic disappears.

And I became so invested in the characters. Going in, I expected the setting to be the star of the show. Instead, I found myself equally interested in the emotional baggage both characters bring into this bizarre place and how those struggles evolve as the story unfolds.

Overall, I had a great time with Backrooms. It’s ambitious, strange, unsettling, and unlike anything else currently playing in theaters. More importantly, it feels like a filmmaker taking a huge swing and largely pulling it off.

And even if you walk out still trying to figure out exactly what happened, that’s probably part of the experience.

After all, if you completely understood the Backrooms, they probably wouldn’t be nearly as scary.