'Backrooms' review: Analog horror sensation makes chilling jump to the big screen

Courtesy of A24

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We are living in what feels like a genuine inflection point in cinema, one that echoes the era when filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher made the jump from music videos into feature filmmaking. The difference now is that this new wave is emerging from YouTube, with creators like Kane Parsons making the leap alongside figures such as Corey Barker, whose “Obsession” became a breakout, and Markiplier with “Iron Lung.” What makes this moment so compelling goes beyond accessibility, but also speaks to how these filmmakers arrive with built-in audiences and a direct line to monetization in ways the traditional Hollywood ecosystem has never quite been able to replicate. In cases like “Obsession” and now the eerie, unsettling “Backrooms,” the results also happen to be genuinely strong, reinforcing the sense that this shift is not only real, but already beginning to fold into the broader studio system.

Enough about the bigger picture for a moment. “Backrooms” itself builds on Parsons’ viral series centered around a never-ending labyrinth of uncanny, fluorescent-lit rooms where something always feels just slightly off. The mythology surrounding the concept is already deeply established for those who have followed his work closely (and if you haven’t at least watched the original “Backrooms” video, it’s worth seeking out), but the transition to a feature film raises the stakes considerably. Parsons, who was just 19 when the film was shot and only 18 when it was greenlit, steps into that challenge alongside serious pedigree, including Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, with indie mainstay Mark Duplass rounding out the cast.

Much of the film thrives on its atmosphere, leaning into a lo-fi, analog horror aesthetic that clearly draws inspiration from early found footage staples like “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity,” while filtering those influences through the sensibilities of the creepypasta generation. The result is something that feels both nostalgic and distinctly modern at the same time. Watching it, you can’t help but think that, for younger audiences, this may very well function as a kind of gateway horror experience in the same way “Blair Witch” did in the late nineties. At the same time, the film’s layered visual language and dense world-building may not fully land for every viewer, particularly those coming in without prior familiarity, even if there is still plenty here to latch onto. A film ultimately has to stand on its own, and for the most part “Backrooms” does, though there are moments where its reliance on ambiguity begins to feel a bit more like distance than intention.

Still, when it clicks, it really clicks. Parsons demonstrates a surprisingly confident grasp of tone and spatial tension, using production design as the film’s primary storytelling engine. The maze itself becomes the star, a sprawling network of yellow wallpapered rooms, warped architecture, and impossible layouts filled with doors, basements, and half-glimpsed spaces that feel deliberately disorienting. It’s a fascinating exploration of space as psychology, where the environment itself begins to feel like a manifestation of something internal rather than purely physical.

Ejiofor anchors much of that instability with a performance that leans into something loose and unraveling. As Clark, a struggling architect turned manager of a failing furniture store, he carries the film’s sense of discovery and dread in equal measure. Through his therapy sessions with Mary (Reinsve), we learn about a life that has already begun to fracture before the “Backrooms” ever enter the picture. Once he stumbles into this hidden world beneath his store, a bizarre liminal space filled with sunken furniture, reversed signage, and the creeping sense that he is not alone, the film leans fully into its nightmarish logic. Parsons makes the smart choice to resist over-explaining, allowing the tension to build through suggestion rather than exposition.

If that all sounds vague, it very much is by design. “Backrooms” isn’t interested in clean resolutions or spoon-feeding its audience. It’s a film that invites you to sit with its uncertainty, to piece things together as you go, and sometimes to accept that not everything will resolve in a tidy way. That approach can be frustrating if you’re expecting a more conventional narrative, but for those willing to engage with it on its own terms, the experience becomes more immersive and unsettling because of it.

Set in Santa Clara Valley in the 1990s, the narrative blends found footage elements with a more character-driven framework. Clark’s discovery of the rooms pulls him into something far stranger than he is emotionally equipped to handle, and when he recruits Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and her boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett) to help document the space, the film briefly suggests a familiar descent-into-horror structure before gradually pivoting into something more abstract. When Clark disappears and Mary begins searching for answers herself, the story expands in ways that begin to subvert whatever expectations you may have had going in.

That pivot ultimately becomes one of the film’s defining traits, both as a strength and as a limitation. Parsons, working from a script by Will Soodik, begins to explore ideas around memory, trauma, and the reliability of perception, but the connective tissue between those themes and the narrative can feel somewhat underdeveloped. The ambition is clear, and at times genuinely exciting, but there are stretches where the film feels like it’s reaching toward something it hasn’t fully articulated yet. The result is a story that remains compelling, but not always as cohesive as it could be.

Even so, the scope of what Parsons accomplishes here is impressive. Expanding a short-form internet concept into a feature-length film without losing the grungy, DIY qualities that made the original so effective is no small task. The film manages to retain that rawness while still scaling up its set pieces and visual ambition in meaningful ways.

Ultimately, “Backrooms” is a bold and at times uneven debut, but it’s one that signals a filmmaker with a clear vision and a real sense of control over mood and imagery. It doesn’t always land every idea it reaches for, but even in its messier moments there’s something exciting about watching a filmmaker test the limits of what this kind of story can be. If nothing else, it reinforces the idea that this new wave of filmmakers isn’t going anywhere, and that the path from internet creator to studio filmmaker is not only viable, but increasingly compelling. If this is just the beginning, there are clearly more rooms left to explore.

Grade: B+ 

BACKROOMS is now playing in theaters.