Unsettling, unreal, but at the same time, strangely familiar spaces. These are the settings for the upcoming A24 movie,Backrooms, coming out this week on May 29, 2026. It’s the first time the endless maze of corridors with yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lights has reached theaters beyond its niche internet communities, where fans are already expecting to be on the edge of their seats.
Set in the ‘90s, the plot follows a therapist (Renate Reinsve) who is searching for her patient (Chiwetel Ejiofor) after he goes missing into the unknown dimension beneath his furniture store. The film promises amazing performances from the leads and the rest of the cast – which includes Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell and Avan Jogia – while not being your usual horror film with predictable jumpscares. This premise has created a lot of anticipation, but it’s not the only aspect that makes this release so special.
The director of the movie, Kane Parsons (known online as Kane Pixels), is not only one of the youngest directors to ever helm a project for the A24 studio, but he is also responsible for transforming the Backrooms into the internet phenomenon that it is today. He is the creator of the YouTube web series also named The Backrooms, which first brought the concept to life by combining the found-footage style with the liminal-space mystery that made the theme popular. With more than 200 million views on YouTube, the series laid the groundwork for what is coming soon in the big-screen adaptation.
But, what are the Backrooms?
By definition, the Backrooms are a maze with endless empty rooms filled with nothing but old carpet, the classic yellow wallpaper and background noise. It isn’t a real location, but it somehow gives you the weird sense of familiarity or of “having been there before”.
It all started in 2003, when an anonymous user posted the first photo of the creepy corridors. Years later, in 2019, the same picture was included in a thread on the website 4chan, where another person started a paranormal-themed board, asking users to “post disquieting images that just feel ‘off'”.
Despite its mysterious origins, this photo was more than enough to spark instant curiosity and a chain reaction among paranormal enthusiasts. Out of countless replies, one comment stood out. It created the very first description of a Backroom, which didn’t just give the scenery a name, but also opened the floodgates for other users to expand this creepypasta’s lore.
“If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in.
God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell heard you.”
- Anonymous, chan (May 13,2019)
First backroom description, posted anonymously on 4Chan
From that point on, many other users started to contribute to the Backrooms universe, sharing stories and photos of other places that captured the original’s energy. The new fandom grew collectively and ended up creating infinite “levels” and entities that populate them. The creativity has no limits when it comes to creating the unreal, and wandering through the Backrooms online community, we can see paranormal content, analog horror, found footage techniques and the liminal spaces concept blending together to build what might be one of the biggest internet urban legends.
Why take it to the big screen?
Since their first appearance, the Backrooms have become a reference for a new era of horror, one that focuses on the disturbing and psychological fear of what doesn’t feel quite right. They represent a genre that is simple yet highly effective, as it combines so many primitive human fears like being alone and lost, the unknown, not being able to escape and being followed or chased. The unsettling vibe captivated the public, serving as a foundation for multiple stories that took over not only the niche social media communities, but also influenced popular TV shows, movies and even video games.
In 2026, after years of inspiring others’ creations and shaping the modern digital horror landscape, it’s finally time for the Backrooms to have their time to shine. This upcoming film feels like a well-deserved moment in the spotlight, honoring the huge internet community that spent years building, expanding, and keeping this universe alive.
Since the fandom is already so deeply invested in the concept and Kane Parsons’ web series, the hype for the adaptation is next-level. A24 has also been transforming cinema and reaching a high status in horror productions, which increases the fans’ expectations of seeing the studio’s take on their long-loved concept.
With all that, sitting in the theater will not just be about watching a scary movie this time, but about seeing a phenomenon that grew from just a single photo to many people’s favorite digital nightmare, and now to the cinematic piece it deserves to be.
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The article above was edited by Maryanna Arison.
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