Backrooms is a 2026 American psychological horror filmMultiple sources: directed and co-scored by Kane Parsons (in his feature directorial debut), and written by Will Soodik. It is based on Parsons's web series which was inspired by the "Backrooms" creepypasta. In the film, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a furniture store owner, and his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) discover a dimension of seemingly endless liminal spaces accessed through the store's basement. Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell also star.
After uploading the web series in January 2022, Parsons was approached by several studios, including A24, about potentially adapting his series into a feature film. In February 2023, it was officially announced that work had begun on a film adaptation of the Backrooms based on Parsons's videos, with him also directing. Roberto Patino was initially set to write the screenplay, but was replaced by Will Soodik. Principal photography took place in Vancouver from July to August 2025.
Backrooms premiered at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica on May 7, 2026, and was theatrically released in the United States by A24 on May 29. It received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $402.5 million worldwide, becoming A24's highest-grossing film to date and making Parsons the youngest filmmaker to reach number one at both the United States and global box offices. Backrooms is the second-highest-grossing horror film of 2026, and the fifth-highest-grossing independent film of all time.
Plot
On June 19, 1990, a researcher with the Async Research Institute, Naren Warne, is separated from his group and becomes lost in "the Backrooms", a labyrinthine extradimensional space containing a chaotic expanse of dull yellow rooms, fluorescent lights, long corridors, and malformed furniture. While attempting to call for rescue, Naren is chased and killed by an unseen entity. Async scientists watch the recovered footage of the incident.
Some time later, Clark, a failed architect who owns a struggling furniture store in San Jose, California, attempts to cope with his alcoholism and struggling marriage. He sees therapist Mary Kline, who is working through her own trauma from the demolition of her childhood home and her agoraphobic mother's institutionalization. Clark recruits his assistant manager Kat and her boyfriend Bobby to film a television commercial featuring himself dressed as the store's pirate mascot. Having taken up residence in the store, he notices the lights flickering mysteriously at night and his television functioning erratically. While checking the breaker box, Clark notices a glowing slit in a wall. Approaching it, he falls through and enters the Backrooms. Clark finds Naren's belongings and narrowly escapes back to the store when an unseen figure chases him. An Async scientist, Phil, watches these events on a surveillance camera.
After days of exploring, Clark tells Mary about the Backrooms but is met with skepticism. In need of proof, Clark brings Kat and Bobby into the Backrooms to film their discoveries. While exploring a steeply sloped corridor, Bobby is ambushed and fatally dragged away by the unseen entity; Clark and Kat frantically give chase through an unexplored area where they are separated. Carrying the camera, Clark eventually encounters two other humanoid entities that chase him to a dead end, where Kat is apparently able to see him through a wall but not vice versa. Clark sets down the camera; an unseen entity picks it up as Kat screams for Clark to look behind him.
Some time later, Mary receives a cryptic answering machine message from Clark, who tells her that he is staying in the Backrooms and will not return. Phil watches television with his family and recognizes Clark in a commercial for the furniture store. Concerned about Clark, Mary visits the store and enters the Backrooms herself, where she finds a crude and cryptic mural. An apparently psychotic Clark arrives; hearing an entity approaching, he tries to calm Mary before choking her unconscious.
Mary awakens tied to a chair in a space resembling a dining room, occupied by Clark and three largely static simulacra of humans. Clark demonstrates they are made of an edible white substance and reveals Kat's severed head in a refrigerator. Clark demands that Mary continue their therapy sessions, but she instead scolds Clark, telling him that his wife left him due to his inability to take responsibility for his failures. He begins to release Mary, but is interrupted by the arrival of a towering, distorted simulacrum of himself dressed as the pirate mascot. Clark tries to calm the pirate monster, which suddenly kills him and then chases Mary through various chaotic and surreal spaces until they reach a flawed replica of the furniture store. Cornered by the monster, she bashes it in the face using a chunk of concrete from her childhood home. Their struggle triggers an Async gas trap, alerting a group of researchers in hazmat suits. The monster is subdued, and Mary is taken to their research facility.
After recovering, Mary is taken to an interrogation room where she meets Phil. He explains that Async made magnetic resonance imaging machines until they discovered the Backrooms, which have since become their primary research focus. When asked how she came across the Backrooms and what she found there, she repeats Clark's description of it as a faulty, misremembered copy of reality. Mary asks if Async will let her go, but Phil states that the decision is not up to him. Inside the Backrooms, a series of spaces are distorted by Clark's and Mary's experiences and their consequences, ending in a loosely copied interrogation room in which her own deformed simulacrum sits still and silent.
Cast
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, a furniture store owner and failed architect Renate Reinsve as Dr. Mary Kline, Clark's therapist Ember Ambrose as young Mary Mark Duplass as Phil, an Async scientist and Backrooms researcher Finn Bennett as Robert "Bobby" Franklin, Kat's boyfriend Lukita Maxwell as Kathrine "Kat" Taylor, Clark's employee and Bobby's girlfriend Avan Jogia as Naren Warne, an Async explorer of the Backrooms Robert Bobroczkyi as Pirate Clark, a monstrous entity that resembles Clark in a pirate costume and inhabits the Backrooms Krista Kosonen as Nora Kline, Mary's mother
Patrick Baynham, Dana Mahmood, and Rhiannon Roberts appear as the simulacra "Still Life" entities credited as the Bearded Man, Archibald Leland Sutter, and Red-Headed Woman, while Philip Granger plays a meterman. Katharine Isabelle makes a cameo during a scene at Mary's house party.
Production
Development
On January 7, 2022, Kane Parsons began uploading an anthological video series titled Backrooms onto his YouTube channel Kane Pixels, the concept being based on the internet creepypasta of the same name. When the series became viral, several studios began to show interest in adapting it into a film. In February 2023, a film adaptation was announced as a joint production between A24, Chernin Entertainment, Atomic Monster, and 21 Laps Entertainment, with Parsons directing, making it his feature-length directorial debut, and Roberto Patino writing. The film is produced by James Wan, Shawn Levy, and Osgood Perkins. Chernin Entertainment and A24 co-financed the film for under $10 million.
Parsons drew inspiration from the Portal video game franchise, the television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), the films Punishment Park (1971) and One Hour Photo (2002), and the anime series Paranoia Agent (2004) for the film, as well as for his web series. Backrooms maintains a "strict continuity" with the director's YouTube web series.
Casting In May 2025, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Cristin Milioti entered negotiations to star in the film. Ejiofor was confirmed the following month, with Will Soodik writing the latest draft. Milioti's deal ultimately fell through, and Renate Reinsve was cast in her place in June. Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell and Avan Jogia were added to the cast in July. Jogia was a fan of Parsons's original web series before he was cast. Despite his character's relatively small part, Jogia recalled he and Parsons spent extensive time discussing the lore of the film during production.
Design
To create the liminal space environments of the Backrooms, Parsons used the 3D software Blender, with production designer Danny Vermette adapting his digital designs for physical construction. More than of Backrooms sets were built across four sound stages for the film, with Vermette comparing the fitting of the sets with Tetris; of wallpaper and of carpeting were used, much of it sourced locally in Canada to avoid the impact of tariffs. The production design also emphasized verticality within the sets to make actors' interactions with the environment more physically challenging. People reportedly got lost on set.
The film's spaces were designed as an "architectural hell" resembling a flawed digital 3D modeling sandbox, where rendering errors—such as misaligned floors, intersecting arches, and objects clipping through walls—create an unsettling sense of unreality. The Backrooms have been described as a prism that refracts its visitors, while its entities appear less like demons than distorted "memories" of the real world, drawing comparisons to the anomalous zone in Annihilation (2018).
Filming Principal photography took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, under the working title Effigy. An ACFC West production listing gave the shooting period as July 7 to August 14, 2025.
Music
Edo Van Breemen and Parsons composed the score for the film. The Boards of Canada track "The Word Becomes Flesh" from their album Inferno plays during the film's end credits. The tracks "Ulterior Motives", a well-known former lostwave song, "Eyes of a Stranger" by Payolas and "B1 – All that follows is true" by the Caretaker, also feature in the film.
Release Backrooms premiered at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica on May 7, 2026, and was released in the United States by A24 on May 29, 2026. It was released in South Korea and Italy on May 27. An extended version of the film, titled Backrooms: Everything Must Go Edition, was released on July 3; it includes an added 15-minute post-credits sequence of Async researchers investigating signage and other items found embedded in floors and walls in the Backrooms. Parsons said no edits were made to the main body of the film, and likened the bonus footage to his YouTube content.
Backrooms was released on digital platforms on July 14. It was originally scheduled to be released on July 7. The bonus footage was released on Parsons's YouTube channel on August 19.
Reception Box office , Backrooms has grossed $197.5million in the United States and Canada, and $204.9million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $402.5million.
In early May 2026, initial projections had Backrooms grossing around $20 million in its opening weekend. By the week of its release, projections had increased to $40–50million. The film grossed $38.4million on its first day and went on to debut to $81.5million domestically and a total of $118million worldwide, becoming A24's biggest opening weekend. In its second weekend, despite a 70% decline to $26.3 million, Backrooms became A24's highest-grossing film to date, surpassing Marty Supreme (2025), after reaching $213million worldwide. In its fourth weekend, the film made $7.3million domestically and $8.5million internationally, pushing its worldwide box office to $301million. Parsons became the youngest filmmaker at the time to reach number one at the box office with the film, topping Josh Trank's Chronicle (2012) with its previous record. In September, Backrooms surpassed $400million at the box office.