Feature Presentation: Backrooms
Try to remember what you forgot in the backrooms of your mind.
No longer confined to the constraints of YouTube, Backrooms expands the short film series to audiences who want to see confined, constraining, weird rooms in a theater.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 VHS Camcorders
Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovers his furniture store’s basement is a doorway to an ever-expansive number of mysterious rooms. He and his psychologist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), discuss his past trauma and his new discovery as Clark steers his way through the unfolding maze of the rooms and his mind. An intriguing story, unsettling visuals, and creeping energy lurking around every corner really add up. I had a lot of fun with this thrilling period piece.
Yes, a 1990 setting is a period piece. I’m not old. I’m vintage.
“I have a few notes.”
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 VHS Camcorders
Vibe: Severance meets Alien meets The Twilight Zone (“Where Is Everybody?,” Season 1, Episode 1; “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” Season 3, Episode 14)
Life Themes: Childhood, Responsibility, Trauma
Theology Themes: Apocalyptic Literature, Doubt, Psalms
Film Themes: Dystopia, Horror, Science Fiction
Best Line: “That’s my assistant manager.”
Mid- or Post-Credits Scene: No, go home.
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Spoiler-Free Review:
I’ve seen a few of the original Backrooms short films on YouTube. But I didn’t see all of them, nor deep dive into the entire lore, or know enough to discern the original from the vast number of creepypasta copycats. I went into this one knowing just three things: 1. it was based on a YouTube film, 2. the box office projections were high, and 3. creepy horror movies are delightful. It isn’t the scariest horror movie out there, and it does meander into unpolished territory, the the film works. This is an “exceeds expectations” directorial debut for Kane Parsons, good for him! He’s 20 years old.
Yes, a 20-year-old directed a circa 1990 period piece. Again, feelin’ vintage.
Signs and Wonders:
The production design is stellar. Much has been made of the studio building 33,000 square feet of backrooms, but beyond the scale is the accuracy. They look so much like the original short films that I wondered if some of the footage is actually from YouTube (especially the cold opening scene). A24 didn’t shrink from Parson’s original vision, they broadened it.
The film’s story is inspired by the original short films but does its own thing. For me as a relative newcomer, it works. The story is contained for the characters, while having more depth through worldbuilding dialogue.
I like that stunt performer Rhiannon Roberts has an interesting role as a still life.
The shot of going down, down, down several layers of the same room with decor that gets more, more, more minimal is excellent. It plays into the themes of remembering, misremembering, and forgetting very well.
Stumbling Blocks:
The saying goes “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Here, I think it’s the opposite. Interesting story, fascinating visuals, but parts are connected in a staccato way. Almost as if the movie is based on several short films that can all be strung together… The movie works, it’s just weighed down with clunky movement between mystery boxes.
While some characters have depth, others are surface level. That’s extremely noticeable in a movie with a small cast overall.
Spoiler-Filled Review:
While I could follow along and enjoy the movie, I did have the sneaking suspicion this will be adored by fans of the original short films. That’s okay, but I often feel that way with adaptations. You walk out liking something, not loving it, then the die-hard fans say, well, you have to read the book! Or, well, you have to watch the originals! Or, well, you are vintage! Maybe, but the ambiguity ended up a little too ambiguous for me.
Signs and Wonders:
Everything that was supposed to be creepy was creepy. The still life half-remembered copies of people stuck in the Backrooms. The sinking furniture in the rooms, and appearance of Mary’s demolished childhood home. The grotesque, lumbering Captain. It all had the intended effect.
We have a solid setup for more. Phil (Mark Duplass) says this is perhaps the greatest discovery in the history of civilization and we have to keep exploring it. Okay, then, bring on more. It’s possible that A24, who rarely delves into sequel territory, has a franchise that connects with young people on its hands.
Stumbling Blocks:
While I don’t need everything explained by the end, I was surprised how much weird stuff was left at simply being weird. As in, that weird stuff you saw? You want an explanation? Hmm, how about just more weird stuff?! At least tell us where to buy chairs appears half-sunk into the floor. You need that merch tie-in.
The movie just ends. It’s a self-contained piece, though left wide open for more, thanks to Phil’s lore-expanding dialogue and the shocking manifestation of a survivor’s new mis-remembered still life recreation. But “abruption” seems to have been mistaken for “abstraction.” The ending is that, too, but that note is drowned out by the sudden, “Oh, I guess that was the ending?” ending.
Previously, on R-Rated Movie Club… A Creeper Story for Halloween Countdown 2025
Reflection:
Backrooms is a psychological horror film that dives into the mind and challenges us to stay in the deep. The conscious and the unconscious meet in the Backrooms, but they don’t quite match up. That’s why furniture, hallways, and people appear just a little off, a bit asynchronous. Did the Async corporation (get it?) invent the backrooms? Discover them? Either way, they don’t appear to really know what they have on their hands. When we have similar uncertainty, we can feel lonely and out of our depth. Backrooms brings themes of assurance, healing, and remembering up from the basement and puts them in the display window.
Clark walks through life as if in lonely backrooms.
His furniture store business is dead. He has no one in his life but his employees. His wife left him, or kicked him out of his own house, is how Clark remembers it. Mary asks him in a therapy session about being alone, to which Clark responds he’s not lonely. Mary points out there is a difference.
There is, and I’ve lived it. When I was in my early 20s, I was often alone and felt loneliness creep its way into my brain. Gladly, I found ways to connect with others. Clark needs connection, too, but these backrooms aren’t going to get them there. They’re just going to keep going and going.
In the middle of the Bible is the Psalms, a collection of poems, prose, and prayers. Some are songs of praise, others are of despair, some are of both. Whether alone or lonely on the surface, Clark is on a solo journey in the depths and breadth of the backrooms. I’m reminded of Psalm 13, sometimes called “the forget-me-not prayer,” in which the writer cries out, “How long, O Lord?” Will you forget me forever? …Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!” There is graffiti on a backroom wall in the film, but I'm reminded of some written in the original YouTube “found footage” videos that reads, “God closed His eyes.” Someone downstairs feels forgotten.
There are few feelings worse than feeling abandoned.
Psalm 139 is one of my favorites. The writer speaks with assurance that no matter their situation, God is there. “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” In the tight-corner rooms that hem you in, this is comfort. “Where can I go from your spirit Or where can I flee from your presence?” No matter how far these rooms go, you are there. If I ascend to the heavens or make my bed in shadowy places, “you are there.” Clark doesn’t have to do this alone. Neither do we.
When have you enjoyed being alone? Have you ever felt lonely? When have you felt connected in ways that left you assured that you are loved?
Clark gets the bargain basement treatment for his mind.
Sadly, Clark’s mind stumbles down the stairs and I’m not sure it’ll ever get back up. Those literal stairs to the basement become figurative stairs for Clark’s descent into madness. He has a method to his madness, as they say, but for where the story goes, he is simply in over his head.
It goes better for the lonely man in the graveyard in the Gospel of Mark 5:1-20. Much has been made of why this man lived away from society, chained amongst the tombs and filled with demons. We all have our demons, yes? This man had legions. Jesus sees the man despite his demons and he is healed. If you like bizarre imagery in the movie, you’ll like the image of the demons entering a herd of swine and running over a cliff. Anything it takes to rid people of their demons, Dear Reader.
Jesus restored the man to his right mind. Clark likely won’t get there. He’s ignored too much, gone off the deep end on too much, and even his support system, Mary, is no match for the backrooms. Clark complains about cheap furniture. He has cheapened his own path to wellness.
What demons did you overcome? Where do you still struggle? What brings you healing?
Clark can’t remember what he’s trying to forget.
From the moment we meet him, it’s not clear if Clark remembers the truth or what he wants to remember. When he and his therapist, Mary, roleplay the night Clark and his wife parted ways, he has trouble seeing how the moment really went, as well as his role in leading up to the moment. Later, he and Mary roleplay again, at Clark’s insistence. By now, Clark is not in his right mind and refuses to remember his role in the play of their lives. Mary won’t let him off the hook, not this time. She bellows the truth at him. It’s not just that Clark has to remember he failed, he has to admit it.
We can return to the Psalms here, with many verses that are a backroom-glimpse into God’s mind when it comes to humankind. Psalm 105:8 reads that God will remember covenant relationships forever. In the very next Psalm, the writer asks God to remember us, then recounts many the ways God has demonstrated this already. And let’s return to Psalm 139 and a God who formed us and knit us together, for we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” No half-remembered, stack-faced still life here. God fully remembers.
God remembers the people. Not only does God remember, God values and encourages us to remember, too.
I know that remembering can get more challenging as we get older, er, embrace our vintage value. I’m not writing about forgetting things because our mind won’t let us remember. I men forgetting things because we won’t let our mind remember. Processing trauma and grief with someone else can be critical for healing.
My hope is Mary can succeed where Clark does not. She must remember: she has faced her childhood trauma, and she can face this, too. We can’t grow from just sitting there, a still life, waiting to be interrogated. We have to be willing to ask ourselves hard questions and respond in meaningful ways. We have to remember.
Where did I see it?
There are two movies out right now from YouTube creators making their directorial debuts and I watched them back to back: Obsession and Backrooms (opening night). When the box office scanned my AMC A-List member ticket for the 7:45pm show, I said I’ll see you in two hours for the second of my double feature. When I came back, he laughed and said enjoy. Both theaters were sold out and both had responsive crowds! Scanning the crowds who exited the theater with me after Backrooms, I was possibly the oldest or one of the oldest there. And I’m not that old! Know how you can tell? ‘Cause I said so.
Where can you see it?
Backrooms was released theatrically on May 29, 2026 and will stream on HBO Max later in the year. You can also watch the original short films at Kane Parson’s YouTube channel.
If you like this, also try:
Being John Malkovich, Cube, It Follows, The Twilight Zone
Fade out…
You aren’t alone. Even when life feels like there’s a layer of sprawling underground backrooms leading you to your deepest fears of the mind and loneliest places of the heart, you are not alone. Learn this early enough in your young years, you may fare better when tough feelings hit you in your vintage era.
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Your turn!
What did you think of Backrooms, Dear Reader? God’s peace and good movies to you!
Greetings! Kindly consider allowing me to share my Backrooms reflection here. I just saw the new movie Backrooms by Kane Parsons. Going into it, I expected to witness a visually disorienting, overly abstract pop-culture phenomenon. Instead, I encountered an engaging storyline that serves as thoughtful social commentary on the nature of the mind, people’s struggles to overcome self-limiting habits, and humanity's awakening consciousness. Check out the video in this blog post to hear how the plot of this movie, as I understand it, relates to Vaishnava teachings from ancient India on the nature of consciousness.
https://awakeningself.substack.com/p/a-bhakti-yoga-commentary-of-backrooms