What’s remarkable about Backrooms is how accessible it is even to those not familiar with nearly a decade of internet lore.
Sure, the Backrooms labyrinths are popular online, and everyone has probably seen at least one image of its yellow-tinged walls, but the concept remains incredibly niché.
Here’s a quick summary of its origins: seven years ago, a creepy photo of an unidentified room went up on 4chan. It quickly inspired countless theories and led to the birth of liminal horror, a new subgenre that derives fear from spaces or structures that feel unsettlingly empty, endless, or abandoned.
Enter Kane Parsons.
In January 2022, the 16-year-old released a short video he made on the Backrooms, in a deliberate effort to expand it into something much more cinematic. Within 48 hours, his short video gained seven million views, and it quickly became definitive canon for many Backrooms fans.
Kane’s universe introduced wild, complex theories centered around a mysterious scientist named Ivan Beck, a bureaucratic research company called the ASYNC Foundation, and a nefarious self-replicating space called The Complex.
The strength of Kane’s videos led A24, alongside industry heavyweights like James Wan and Shawn Levy, to hire the then-teenager to direct a feature-length adaptation.
So now, here we are.
At 20 years old, Kane has become the youngest director in history to top the box office.
The Backrooms movie has grossed a staggering $81.4 million domestically and $118 million globally in its opening weekend alone.
Read: Cup of Joe delivers historic concert; shares stage with OPM legends
Kane Parsons’ Backrooms Proves Internet Horror Can Thrive on the Big Screen
Part of its success is Kane’s willingness to write a story that is completely accessible to newbies.
Rather than drowning the mass audience in the established, hyper-dense internet mythos of ASYNC, the film follows a furniture shop owner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who discovers a mysterious, labyrinthine complex underneath his store.
When he goes missing, his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) steps inside the liminal space to try to find him. By focusing on two entirely new characters, Kane anchors an abstract digital nightmare into relatable human stakes.
Performance-wise, Chiwetel delivers a strong, deeply grounded, and relatable performance as the lead.
Renate, however, feels somewhat lacking due to a flat affect that rarely changes throughout the film. Given the meticulous nature of the production, this rigidity feels less like a flaw in her acting ability and more like a deliberate, slightly alienating directorial choice, perhaps meant to reflect the soul-crushing, numbing psychological toll of the environment.
The structure of the film itself mimics the disorienting nature of its setting.
The first half is a slow, agonizing simmer of creeping dread, letting the audience marinate in the dead silence of the space.
The story can get genuinely confusing, jumping timelines without warning, proper transitions, or background context.
But this lack of a traditional backgrounder is entirely by design. In liminal horror, clarity is the enemy of fear, and the director clearly wants the audience to leave the theater asking questions.
Once the full scale of the Backrooms is revealed, the pacing ramps up fiercely, shifting from atmospheric unease to kinetic terror. This culminates in a breathless, thrilling chase scene that literally had the audience gasping for air.
Kane has successfully transformed Backrooms from a solitary online-only experience into a collective, high-voltage community energy that demands to be experienced in a packed theater.
Ultimately, the film functions as a brilliant proof of concept and a massive win for internet-born creators.
With Kane leading the charge, the hope is that Hollywood will continue to recognize the cinematic potential of the internet’s most terrifying creations.
There are more liminal and analog horror stories waiting for their mainstream spotlight. Who else is excited to see stories like Local58, Gemini Home Entertainment, and The Mandela Catalogue on the big screen?
Backrooms premiered on June 3, 2026 in cinemas nationwide.
Read: Midnight Girls: a heartfelt movie with strong female leads