Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Backrooms' - Liminal space horror you'll want to get lost in

Ever stood in an empty corridor which seems to stretch on forever, or found yourself in a deserted room that feels "off"?

Chances are you have encountered these spaces of transition like a hotel hallway, an airport gate, or a Severance-style office corridor which seems simultaneously familiar and eerie. It’s as if time were suspended in a place neither alienating enough to be considered horrific, but not ordinary enough to be reassuring.

But have you ever “noclipped” out of reality and found yourself in a never-ending drab interior where evil make lurk around the corner? Let’s hope not.

This is the plight facing failed architect and depressed furniture store owner Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the lead protagonist in 20-year-old YouTuber and now first-time director Kane Parsons’ Backrooms. He finds an invisible portal inside Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, which leads him to an extradimensional space with jaundiced walls, humming lights, and endless levels.

When Clark disappears inside this banal yet bizarre maze of liminal spaces, his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) goes searching for him and ends up going through the looking glass... She too will discover that Wonderland, this ain’t.

While box office tallies are no indicator of a film’s quality, there is every reason to take note and celebrate thebreakout success of Backrooms. Parsons’ debut opened in the US with $81 million (on a $10 million budget), becoming A24’s biggest opening in the studio’s history. It also made Parsons the youngest director in history to top the US box office.

While this could be down to a pre-established audience, as Backrooms began as popular internet lore originating as a 4chan creepypasta post (which then saw Parsons direct a web series exploring the urban legend, which boasts 200 million views since debuting in 2022), the reason behind 2026’s runaway hit is most likely due to extremely positive word of mouth.

You see, Backrooms has it all. Palpable unease. Surreal nightmare logic. Solid performances from Ejiofor and everyone’s favourite Norwegian treasure. Unnerving set design bolstered by a similarly eerie score. A smattering of Lovecraftian dread and squirm-inducing body horror. Corner-of-your-eye scares. Echoes to The Blair Witch Project and Cube – which are only bolstered by VHS found footage sequences and the 90s setting. An understanding of the uniquely unnerving metaphorical correlation between architecture and neural pathways, which The Shining did so well. The lot.

It’s a slow-burn continuation of the director’s web series which not only does justice to the established canon but allows those unfamiliar with the viral myth to enter its disquieting world without having to do any homework. The viewer is plunged inside an expansive yet claustrophobic world which thrives on the inherent shiver-inducing power of a bizarrely placed object and how bloody creepy it is to find a familiar element where it doesn’t belong.

Beyond the immediate creep factor, Parsons has shrewdly made Backrooms about two lonely souls: a frustrated divorcé with unresolved anger issues and a psychologist wrestling with her childhood trauma as she tries her best to help others. The uncanny world of the Backrooms mirrors their interior struggles and becomes the physical manifestation of how we are all plagued by psychological loops we create for ourselves. These trap us, and keep us reaching for the same flawed solutions over and over again.

With this in mind, Parsons makes his debut less about surviving a world with Annihilation-reminiscent motives, and more a quest to break behavioural cycles. How? By understanding the most potent menace will always come from within.

As chillingly compelling as Backrooms is, and as heartening as the buzz around it continues to be, it’s not flawless. Some more seasoned horror hounds may not be as wowed compared to a younger generation of viewers looking for their Blair Witch, and the final act will divide audiences. It certainly reveals that the script has its pitfalls, with some rickety dialogue being the main offender. That and the tacked-on MKUltra lore, courtesy of the mysterious Async Research Institute, which threatens the Twilight Zone simplicity of a barebones but fertile concept.

That said, the final shot will lead to much theorising as to the nature of the titular hellscape. Sentient universe creating monstrosities or projection of the subconscious? There’s merit in Parsons’ decision to suggest and tease rather than outright explain.

All this from a 20-year-old wunderkind who took a look at an image posted online, created a world from it, confidently expanded his vision in a successful transition from YouTube to Hollywood, AND delivered the horror film to beat once 2026 takes its bow...

What were you doing at his age?

Best not to dwell on that... Horrors may lurk there too.

Backrooms is out now in the US, UK and continues its European rollout this month.

Video editor • Amber Louise Bryce