The Backrooms Explained: What Is the Liminal Horror Phenom Heading to the Big Screen From A24?
Kane Parsons’ feature debut keeps the YouTube series’ continuity while expanding the internet-born horror story into a big-screen release.
- Director Kane Parsons brings A24's Backrooms to theaters Friday, May 29, with the 20-year-old filmmaker having shot the horror feature on a 30,000 square-foot Vancouver soundstage; some Hollywood reports predict the release will be A24's biggest.
- The Backrooms phenomenon began with a single unsettling photograph posted anonymously to 4chan in May 2019 from a former furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, then expanded across Reddit, YouTube, Discord and gaming platforms over seven years as users collectively built mythology.
- Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renata Reinsve star alongside horror icon James Wan as producer, with Vancouver-based Oddfellows Entertainment and Chris Ferguson also producing; marketing campaigns placed blue-tape entryways across Vancouver and London on May 21.
- Parsons maintained creative control throughout production with minimal barriers from A24, while the Park Theatre will host an exclusive May 28 screening ahead of Friday's official release.
- Audiences have generated hundreds of thousands of r/backrooms subreddit members and over half a million TikTok posts, positioning the Backrooms as a participatory digital culture where users actively collaborate as world-builders rather than passive spectators.
12 Articles
12 Articles
The Backrooms Explained: What Is the Liminal Horror Phenom Heading to the Big Screen From A24?
The Backrooms movie will be released in theaters on May 29.Liminal spaces – dreamy and nostalgic locales defined by their specific use as a transient space that you don’t spend much time in but remember at least somewhat fondly – are a common part of our everyday lives. They are everywhere, and we all use them, but nothing has perverted their real-life harmlessness more than the phenomenon known as the Backrooms. What started as a benign yet uns…
‘Backrooms’ Review: Experimental Horror Comes Out of the Margins in Kane Parsons’ YouTube-Gone-A24 Head Trip
Parsons, in his feature directing debut (the script is by Will Soodik), proves a wizard of mood who shares the early David Lynch’s love of industrial cosmic sound design, and also Lynch’s fixation on the mysteries of electricity. Parsons wrings genuine terror out of the sense of being enclosed, in what feels at times like it could be some infinite version of a serial killer’s lair.
Inside the Backrooms: the internet horror world built by its users
What if you could visit a place that does not exist on any map? A place whispered about online as though it sits just beyond the edges of our known world. A place known quite simply as, the Backrooms. The Backrooms are an internet-created fictional setting imagined as an infinite network of empty, fluorescent-lit rooms. The concept centres on the idea of accidentally slipping out of normal reality and becoming trapped in this monotonous, labyrin…
'Backrooms' entryways are appearing around Vancouver
Horror fans around the world are gearing up for the release of the upcoming A24 flick, Backrooms, and there have been some interesting sightings around Vancouver in connection with the release. Some Hollywood box office reports predict that the impending release will be A24’s biggest, which is quite a stunning revelation considering some of the massive hits A24 has released. In the lead-up to this Friday’s major release, some spooky Backrooms en…
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