Backrooms movie review: Kane Parsons turns internet nightmare into unsettling big-screen horror

A still from Backrooms

If you've spent years falling down the rabbit hole of Backrooms lore online. Kane Parsons' feature debut delivers exactly what you would hope for - a deeply unsettling trip into liminal horror. For newcomers, however, the experience may feel like wandering through an endless maze without a map.

Based on the viral creepypasta and Parsons' hugely popular YouTube series, Backrooms follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a failed architect now running a struggling furniture store called Captain Clark's Ottoman Empire. Recently kicked out by his wife and stuck in a life he never imagined for himself, Clark attends therapy sessions with Dr Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), who is dealing with emotional baggage of her own. Their conversations about loneliness, memory and feeling trapped become the emotional backbone of the film.

One day, Clark discovers a hidden doorway in his shop leading to an impossible labyrinth of rooms packed with furniture, hallways and spaces that seem familiar yet disturbingly wrong. What begins as curiosity quickly turns into obsession. After a disastrous expedition with his employees Bobby and Kat, Clark becomes increasingly drawn to the Backrooms, convinced that he finally belongs there.

The film's most fascinating idea is that the Backrooms aren't just endless hallways. They appear to create grotesque entities from fragmented memories and distorted versions of real people. Every person who enters leaves behind something of themselves, resulting in creatures that feel like half-remembered nightmares. Clark's relationship with these beings becomes one of the film's strongest and strangest threads, culminating in the terrifying appearance of Captain Clark, a monstrous reflection of himself.

Parsons excels at atmosphere. The cinematography constantly makes viewers question what they are seeing. Empty corridors, flickering fluorescent lights and endless rooms create a sense of dread that rarely lets up. Even when nothing is happening, the film feels threatening. The jump scares earn genuine gasps rather than cheap reactions.

Ejiofor delivers a compelling performance as a man slowly finding comfort in a place that should terrify him, while Reinsve brings emotional weight to Mary's increasingly desperate search for answers.

Where Backrooms stumbles is the ending. The introduction of Async, the mysterious research organisation investigating the phenomenon, raises more questions than it answers. Mary's interrogation by scientist Phil (Mark Duplass) feels intriguing in the moment but ultimately leads to an underwhelming final reveal involving her Backrooms counterpart. The ambiguity works to a point, but the climax lacks the punch the rest of the film builds towards.

If you're a fan of atmospheric horror, liminal spaces and slow-burning psychological dread, Backrooms is well worth the watch. The film is at its best when it leans into the unsettling mystery of its world rather than explaining it, making for a genuinely creepy theatrical experience. Those expecting a conventional monster movie with clear-cut answers may leave frustrated, especially with the ambiguous ending. But for viewers willing to get lost in its strange corridors and unsettling ideas, Backrooms offers a memorable horror ride that lingers long after the credits roll.