Backrooms

Backrooms (2026) came out of a horror idea born on the internet, and its director's story drew as much attention as the film. The Backrooms began with a forum post in 2019: fall out of reality and you end up in endless yellow corridors, the smell of damp carpet and the hum of fluorescent light. The idea spread quickly and produced a horror mode called liminal space; empty shopping centres, swimming pools at night, corridors with nobody in them. Kane Parsons started making short films in that universe for YouTube in 2022, while still a teenager. They were watched millions of times and a studio came calling. He directed the feature at twenty and became A24's youngest feature director. It took over eighty million dollars on its opening weekend, A24's biggest opening, making him the youngest filmmaker to reach number one at the box office. The sets are not digital. Real corridors were built across a thirty thousand square metre space; the sense of endlessness is produced by editing and architecture. The fear comes from the place rather than a creature. The danger is usually unseen and only heard, and for long stretches nothing happens. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve are in the cast. It runs 111 minutes. Good for: slow building horror, liminal space aesthetics, and internet culture. Less good for: nothing happens for long periods and that will bore some viewers. Hard going if you are claustrophobic.