Backrooms review: Unflinchingly eerie horror goes down a creepy rabbit hole

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A star rating of 4 out of 5.

This unsettling sci-fi horror film, directed by Kane Parsons (a creator known from YouTube), heavily features ‘liminal spaces.’ These are everyday locations – like hallways, classrooms, or stairwells – that feel strangely eerie when they’re empty of people, creating a disquieting and almost otherworldly feeling.

In 2019, images of the Backrooms – a seemingly endless maze of connected rooms – became a viral sensation online. These images then sparked a series of creepy short films by Parsons in 2022, which ultimately led to the creation of his first full-length feature film, a project many are now excited to see.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, a frustrated manager at a furniture store. He once dreamed of being an architect, but his career – and his marriage – haven’t gone as planned. Now, his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), is urging him to start fresh.

Cap’n Clark’s business, the Ottoman Empire, isn’t doing well, forcing him to create a quirky advertisement. Instead of dressing as a sultan, he chooses to be a one-legged pirate, much to the amusement of his laid-back assistant, Finn Bennett.

After being asked to leave by his wife, Clark falls asleep in the store overnight. While there, he unexpectedly discovers a hidden doorway in the basement, which leads to a strange and vast world of simple, interconnected rooms and hallways that seem to go on forever.

This isn’t a magical world like Narnia or Wonderland. As Clark delves deeper, things become increasingly unsettling and distorted. He finds strangely angled furniture, confusing signs, and random doors and chutes leading down, creating a warped environment. The only sound at first is the steady buzz of fluorescent lights, but soon, disturbing noises and thumps begin to build a sense of growing dread.

Honestly, when I’m watching a thriller, I always find myself asking: is anyone else around, or is there something really scary hiding? And, let’s be real, most of the time I’m just wondering, what on earth is happening?!

Movies like Vivarium (2019), where Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots are stuck in a neighborhood of identical houses with no escape, and the new film Exit 8 – about a man endlessly looping through a subway corridor – effectively create deep fear from everyday, ordinary settings. Backrooms does the same thing, but on a much larger and more expansive scale.

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This impressive first feature film from Parsons cleverly uses the found-footage technique to create suspense, and even hints at what’s really happening. As the main character, Clark, explores a never-ending series of rooms, the story takes unexpected turns, leaving you guessing about the ultimate outcome. The mystery deepens when Clark’s therapist starts looking into his strange vanishing act.

Ejiofor delivers a particularly poignant performance, and is wonderfully paired with Reinsve (who received an Oscar nomination this year for her work in the Norwegian film Sentimental Value). Reinsve portrays a character who seems calm and mysterious, hinting at a hidden past.

Honestly, while the actors are fine, what really grabbed me was the setting itself. It starts off pretty ordinary, but it slowly transforms into something genuinely unsettling and strange. The way the location changes is almost a character in itself, and it’s brilliantly done.

It will be fascinating to see what Parsons does next, but there’s still a lot more to discover about the strange things hidden beyond what we already know.

Authors

Jeremy Aspinall

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2026-05-27 13:36