Backrooms Movie Review: A Creepy and Ambitious Horror Debut With Huge Potential

The internet’s most unsettling horror phenomenon finally makes the leap to the big screen in Backrooms, and while the film doesn’t fully unlock the terrifying potential of its premise, it delivers an atmospheric and often genuinely creepy experience that establishes director Kane Parsons as one of horror’s most promising new voices.

Built around the viral creepypasta concept that inspired Parsons’ hugely popular YouTube series, Backrooms transforms the internet’s fascination with liminal spaces into a feature-length psychological horror story filled with eerie imagery, strong performances and moments of genuine tension.

A Man Already Trapped Before Entering the Backrooms

The story follows Clark, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, a struggling furniture store manager whose life has quietly fallen apart.

Living out of his failing business, drinking heavily and unable to move on from his divorce, Clark spends much of the film trapped in a personal limbo long before he discovers the strange world beneath his store.

This emotional stagnation becomes one of the film’s most interesting themes. Clark isn’t simply entering an alternate reality — he is stepping into a physical manifestation of the emptiness that already defines his life.

That deeper emotional layer gives the film more weight than many horror adaptations based on internet mythology.

What Are the Backrooms?

For viewers unfamiliar with the online phenomenon, the Backrooms are essentially spaces that exist adjacent to reality.

At first glance they resemble endless office corridors, abandoned hallways and empty rooms illuminated by flickering fluorescent lights. But as exploration continues, the environment becomes increasingly impossible.

Doors appear where they shouldn’t.

Hallways stretch endlessly.

Rooms connect in ways that defy logic.

Distances lose meaning.

The result is a world that feels familiar enough to recognize but wrong enough to trigger constant unease.

The concept taps into a very modern form of horror — the fear of becoming lost in spaces that should make sense but somehow don’t.

Atmosphere Over Jump Scares

One of the film’s biggest strengths is its refusal to rely solely on conventional horror tricks.

Rather than filling every scene with cheap jump scares, Parsons focuses on atmosphere, uncertainty and psychological tension.

The Backrooms themselves become the film’s primary source of fear.

As Clark begins exploring the strange dimension with therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), employee Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and her boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett), the spaces gradually reveal themselves to be far more dangerous than they first appear.

The horror emerges not from constant monster attacks but from the growing realization that the environment itself operates according to rules nobody understands.

Impressive Visual Storytelling

Parsons demonstrates a surprisingly confident visual style throughout the film.

Working alongside cinematographer Jeremy Cox, he frequently experiments with perspective and format.

Several sequences use grainy VHS footage captured by Bobby, creating an authentic found-footage texture that feels naturally integrated into the story rather than gimmicky.

The camera often lingers on empty corridors and impossible architecture, allowing the audience’s imagination to do much of the work.

A particularly effective late-film chase sequence showcases Parsons’ ability to transform vast open spaces into environments that feel claustrophobic and threatening.

The visual design consistently reinforces the feeling that reality itself is breaking apart.

Sound Design Becomes the Real Villain

If the visuals establish the nightmare, the sound design brings it to life.

Parsons co-composed the score alongside Edo Van Breemen, creating a haunting audio landscape that rarely draws attention to itself but constantly deepens the atmosphere.

The music blends seamlessly with the ever-present fluorescent hum that defines the Backrooms.

At times it’s difficult to tell where the score ends and the environment begins.

That ambiguity creates a constant sense of discomfort and makes even quiet scenes feel threatening.

The film understands that horror often works best when audiences feel uneasy without fully understanding why.

Strong Performances Ground the Nightmare

The cast provides the emotional foundation needed to make the bizarre premise work.

Ejiofor delivers a grounded performance as Clark, avoiding exaggerated horror reactions and instead portraying a man whose fear builds gradually as he realizes the scale of what he has discovered.

Renate Reinsve is equally effective as Mary, bringing intelligence and emotional credibility to a role that could easily have become purely functional.

Their restrained performances help make the increasingly surreal events feel believable.

Rather than screaming through every frightening moment, both actors often react with stunned silence, allowing viewers to imagine the terror unfolding internally.

Mark Duplass also makes a memorable supporting appearance that adds another layer of intrigue to the story.

The Film’s Biggest Weakness

For all its strengths, Backrooms occasionally struggles with its own ambition.

The film works best when it embraces mystery and uncertainty, yet it repeatedly feels the need to explain itself.

Some of the most effective horror films leave audiences with unanswered questions. Here, the screenplay sometimes attempts to provide explanations where ambiguity would have been more powerful.

The result is a film that occasionally feels safer than its concept deserves.

Movies such as Eraserhead and Skinamarink fully commit to dreamlike logic and disorientation. Backrooms flirts with that territory but often pulls back before becoming truly surreal.

It is frightening, but rarely as deeply unsettling as it could have been.

A Promising Future for Kane Parsons

Even with its flaws, Backrooms succeeds where many internet-inspired adaptations fail.

Rather than simply exploiting a popular online concept, Parsons demonstrates genuine filmmaking talent and a clear understanding of visual horror.

The film frequently feels like the work of a director still discovering what he is capable of.

That may ultimately be its most exciting quality.

While Backrooms doesn’t fully realize every terrifying possibility hidden within its premise, it delivers enough memorable imagery, atmosphere and tension to suggest that Parsons could become a major voice in modern horror.

Verdict

Backrooms is an ambitious and atmospheric horror film that successfully expands a viral internet concept into a compelling cinematic experience. Strong performances, impressive visual storytelling and deeply unsettling sound design make it one of the more interesting horror releases of the year. Although it occasionally over-explains its mysteries, the film confirms Kane Parsons as a filmmaker worth watching and leaves the door wide open for even more terrifying journeys into the unknown.

Rating: 3.5/5