From 4chan, to YouTube, and to the big screen.
This week it hits theaters Backrooms of Kane Parsonsadaptation of the creepypasta originated with an image posted by an anonymous user on 4chan in 2019, based on the idea of accidentally and gradually disappearing from reality, in a network of seemingly empty rooms, only to discover that you are not alone. In 2022, the concept had new life when the premise was turned into a short film in found footage, by a then-16-year-old Parsons on his YouTube channel, Kane Pixels.
Parsons expanded the mythology of his short film with several videos published on the social network, accumulating millions of views, consolidating itself as a internet viral horror phenomenon.
Now it's time to move to the big screen, with the adaptation backed by independent film studio, A24and Parsons' feature film directorial debut. With just 20 yearsbecomes the youngest director of an A24 project.
The result? Another triumph for horror films.
With script Will Soodik (Ash vs Evil Dead, Westworld, Homeland), Backrooms It is set in the 90s, and follow Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a divorced man, a failed architect, frustrated and resentful of life, who works as the owner of a cheap furniture store. Clark goes to therapy with Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), to whom he talks about how his wife kicked him out of the house, and now he lives in the furniture store.
One night, the place experiences a lighting problem that takes Clark to the floor below where he will try to fix the problem, however, on one of the walls he notices a light that makes him approach and when he touches the wall, He finds a strange hidden door that he can pass through, which leads him to another dimension with a chilling atmosphere beyond reality.
Later, Dr. Mary will also enter this dimension in search of Clark, and two other young furniture workers (played by Lukita Maxwell y Find Bennett).
WHAT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE?
On the other side of the wall is a huge, empty room, with faded yellow walls. Clark soon discovers that each room connects to another, and another, and another; some contain stacked furniture, steps, dirty clothes, others have doors in the least expected places. This place of empty rooms and hallways is full of infinite possibilities.. But Clark is not alone, inside there is a sinister, nameless, and unnatural threat that inhabits the endless labyrinth.
The work behind the lens, which is a mix between found footage –with a VHS filter– and a film camera, takes us through room after room, entering more and more into the aesthetics of liminal spacewhich is very well used, and it is precisely in your audiovisual design where they are built the most disturbing detailswhich stalk both the protagonists and the audience, plunging us all into the labyrinth equally. In this sense, Backrooms It is extraordinarily effective.
About what specifically lives within the BackroomsI won't do spoilers.
¿ES BACKROOMS A GOOD HORROR MOVIE?
Parsons' proposal is plenty of suggestions about sinister presencesdarkness, a threat that is within our reach, for which at the same time, you do not get a specific response, and for many, the use of imagination It will be a great quality.
To those looking for a conventional horror experienceat the end of the film, it might leave them shrugging their arms. It's your choice.
See you in movie theaters.
QUALIFICATION:
TECHNICAL SHEET:
Original title: Backrooms
Title in our region: Backrooms – Sin Salida
Director: Kane Parsons
Screenwriter: Will Soodik
List: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Lukita Maxwell, Finn Bennett, Mark Duplass, Avan Jogia
Producers: James Wan, Michael Clear, Shawn Levy, Robert Patino, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, Chris Ferguson, Osgood Perkins, Kane Parsons
Executive producers: Judson Scott, Alayna Glasthal, Chris White
Soundtrack: Kane Parsons, Edo Van Breemen
Director of photography: Jeremy Cox
Editor: Greg Ng
Classification: R (United States), B15 (Mexico)
Duration: 110 minutes
Distributor: A24 (United States), Imagem Films (Mexico)
Cinema release: May 28, 2026 (Latin America), May 29 (United States)
Trailer:
Source: https://cine3.com/critica-backrooms-kane-parsons-a24-terror-liminal/
