‘Backrooms’

Backrooms (2026) is a psychological horror. The film is directed by Kane Parsons, who previously worked on YouTube shorts. He has faithfully adapted his YouTube videos for cinema.

In Backrooms, Clark’s big dream is to be a successful architect, but his life has ended in failure, alcoholism, and the collapse of a long term relationship. Now he lives in the furniture store that he manages. When he discovers a portal to another world he takes a journey into a strange land. The journey (like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness) accelerates his mental decline.

The story uses the ‘liminal spaces’ internet meme – a science fiction parallel world – which in this case is accessed through an invisible portal in a wall. ‘Found footage’ and effective sound design enhance the creepy atmosphere. The story takes place in 1990 in an analogue, pre-internet world.

Clark’s nowhere life leads him to the discovery of the backrooms – a nowhere place. It’s a weird, surreal alt world, like a massive computer glitch that has a life of its own. There are echoes of the zone in Stalker and the area in Annihilation. It’s a mutated and claustrophobic Salvador Dali nightmare. Chaotic, surreal, and nonsensical.

The backrooms are a labyrinth filled with monsters that emanate from Clark’s own fears, and his therapy sessions with Mary. The location operates as a classic haunted house. It’s an emotional metaphor for mental disintegration or ‘miss-rememberings’.

The film picks up in the last twenty minutes with a mind blowing MC Escher moment and a monster that’s both frightening and comical. It’s a slow build story, so the pace may alienate some people, but it pays off in the end.