3 Creepypasta Movies, TV Shows, and Web Series to Watch Before Backrooms (That Are Actually Good)

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A24 has released the trailer for Backrooms, a new horror film known for its eerie and unsettling atmosphere. The movie is directed by Kane Parsons, a 20-year-old VFX animator who is A24’s youngest director ever. It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a furniture store owner who finds a mysterious doorway in his basement leading to an endless, brightly lit maze that defies reality. Renate Reinsve plays his therapist, who later has to enter this strange dimension as well. The film is based on a YouTube series created by Parsons, which has gained over 190 million views since 2022, and the screenplay was written by Will Soodik (known for Westworld). With producers like James Wan and Shawn Levy involved, it’s clear the studio has high hopes for Backrooms.

The Backrooms started as a simple idea on the online forum 4chan in 2019. A picture of a large room with yellow carpet led people to imagine what it would be like to be stuck there, and those descriptions quickly spread online as a scary story. It became one of the most well-known horror myths of the past few years. A YouTube series by Parsons expanded on the idea, creating a detailed backstory, and the video game Escape the Backrooms made it even more popular across different platforms. The trailer for the game is genuinely creepy, focusing on the unsettling feeling of being in empty spaces and the eeriness of ordinary buildings, rather than relying on sudden shocks. However, fans of horror know that stories that start online don’t always work well when turned into full-length movies or games, though there are a few exceptions.

3) Marble Hornets

Launched in June 2009, Marble Hornets is a YouTube series that pioneered many of the storytelling techniques and visual styles later used in Kane Parsons’ Backrooms universe. Created by Troy Wagner, Joseph DeLage, and Tim Sutton, the series is presented as video logs from Jay Merrick (Wagner), a film student trying to figure out why his friend Alex Kralie (DeLage) suddenly stopped working on a film. Alex had encountered a tall, suit-wearing, faceless figure known only as The Operator. Over five years, Marble Hornets ran for 92 episodes and gained over 125 million views, popularizing the Slender Man character who would go on to appear in numerous other online series and games.

The success of Marble Hornets—unlike its stage adaptation—stemmed from its total dedication to the ‘found footage’ style. It used distorted videos, mysterious extra content, and intentionally incomplete details to create a growing sense of unease that traditional horror couldn’t achieve. The series also popularized the Slender Man figure, which went on to appear in many online games and alternate reality games. For anyone interested in how online horror builds lasting tension through fragmented storytelling, Marble Hornets is still the best example of the ‘creepypasta‘ format.

2) Beware the Slenderman

The 2017 HBO documentary Beware the Slenderman, directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky, explores the chilling real-life consequences of an internet myth. It focuses on a disturbing 2014 case in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where two 12-year-old girls attacked a classmate, stabbing her 19 times. They told authorities they did it to please Slenderman, a creepy, suit-wearing figure that started as a photoshopped image on an online forum in 2009. Filmed over a year and a half, the documentary features interviews with the families involved and offers a look at teenage mental health, the power of online stories, and how easily the line between fantasy and reality can blur.

Beware the Slenderman heavily uses footage from Marble Hornets and explores how online storytelling creates modern myths. What sets it apart is its thoughtful approach – it avoids being overly dramatic, making it a truly insightful look at how creepypasta affects people. While it isn’t a horror movie itself, the subject matter can be surprisingly unsettling, even more so than many traditional horror films.

1) Channel Zero

Channel Zero is a horror anthology series that ran for four seasons on SyFy from 2016 to 2018. It’s notable for being a particularly well-done adaptation of the online horror phenomenon known as creepypasta. Each season consists of six episodes and focuses on a different scary story found online. The first season, Candle Cove, centers on a child psychologist named Mike Painter (Paul Schneider) who returns to his hometown and uncovers a strange resurgence of a creepy 1980s children’s TV show. Later seasons explore a haunted traveling house (The No-End House), disappearances connected to mysterious staircases in forests (Butcher’s Block), and a puzzling door that appears in the basement of a new couple’s home (The Dream Door).

Throughout its four seasons, Channel Zero skillfully captures the feeling and mood of each creepypasta story and builds a completely new world around it. The show’s creature designs and storylines maintain the original story’s sense of fear without being limited by their short length. Channel Zero is the best example of how to successfully adapt a creepypasta, especially when the creators treat the source material with respect, making it essential viewing before checking out Backrooms.

Backrooms opens in theaters on May 29, 2026.

What’s your favorite creepypasta movie or TV series? Share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion on the ComicBook Forum!

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2026-04-01 22:41