by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer
The internet has been a source of artistic creation for the better part of the 21st century. Wherever chatrooms, social media, or forums have existed, stories have been told and shared. In particular, these websites have led to an explosion of popularity for the genre of “creepypastas.” For those of you who are not as chronically online as me, creepypastas are horror stories shared around the internet. Think of them as the modern campfire stories, retold and reposted over and over, until these tales expand and take on a kind of legend. Perhaps no creepypasta has grown quite as well as The Backrooms. And it expands even more with its 2026 feature film.
Lackluster furniture salesman and ex-architect Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) seems to be failing at every turn. On the heels of a tough separation and facing down the barrel of bankruptcy, he does not have a lot going for him. But one day he discovers his store is connected to the titular backrooms, a massive, nigh-infinite maze of rooms. Consumed by his discovery, he tells his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve). Understandably concerned about his overall wellbeing, Mary goes to see Clark and ends up pulled into the backrooms herself. Will they be able to escape? Are they alone in there? What is even happening in these backrooms?
Backrooms is a different kind of horror than your standard slasher flick. Each wall and set of furniture and window bears a similar feeling of muted tones and being inescapable. When you combine that with the sinking feeling as our heroes try and fail to escape a maze, it creates a feeling of dread. Dread gives way to fear as the possibility that something hostile walks through these rooms too. This is tremendous work done by a veteran of this franchise, director and screenwriter Kane Parsons.
Perhaps one of the biggest parts in creating this tone is the incredible set design and effects. The aforementioned rooms are dingy, lit by those awful fluorescent lights, and just seem generally dirty. Capturing a kind of disgusting reminder of a corporate American office space, this style is easily moldable into whatever kind of room Parsons needs for a scene. One minute it may be reminiscent of an office corridor and another a breakroom. There are more unique areas too like a swimming pool area, but it still has hints of that yellow and dingy tone. High praise should go to the set designers because they did a lot of good work stretching out this style as far as it can go. With an estimated budget of only ten million dollars, this team made every dollar spent worth the price of admission.
Unfortunately, too much time was not spent on our leads, but Ejiofor and Reinsve are serviceable. Both are good at playing the various reactions of fear and confusion that come with the discovery of this new world. Particularly Ejiofor, who plays Clark’s dwindling mental state extremely well. But I think one of the few glaring flaws of this movie is not knowing how to make thematically consistent protagonists. We get glimpses and allusions to both Clark and Mary’s lives but not enough to draw us into them. Either one could have been an interesting central figure, but the movie does not have the time or space to unveil more about them and show us all the brutal mundanity that the backrooms have to offer.
Parsons and his support team at A24 ultimately made the right choice to let the true focus of the movie be the backrooms themselves. This setting has more originality than most movies at your local theater while still leaving room to grow and create a greater mythology. It reminds me in an odd way of the original Star Wars in that it feels completely new to a general audience. No one has tried a story like this on a large scale and general moviegoers will be surprised and intrigued by what’s on the big screen here. My hope is that this story will find a way to continue without losing that It factor making it unique and fresh. Don’t explain the bit too much. Let the audience enjoy what you’ve given them and find a way to bring us back for more. Because right now I would certainly sign up to explore more of the Backrooms.
Rating: High Side of Liked It
Backrooms is currently available in theaters
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