The internet has a short attention span. Creepypasta comes and goes. But the Backrooms stuck. That image of a yellow-wallpapered, fluorescent-lit office stretching into eternity tapped into something primal. A24, James Wan, and 20-year-old wunderkind Kane Parsons (known as Kane Pixels online) decided to turn that viral sensation into a full-length feature film. The result is a massive $81.4 million box office hit and the biggest original horror debut in history.
But money does not equal quality. Backrooms is a film of frustrating contradictions. It is deeply ambitious yet painfully slow. It is visually stunning yet narratively bankrupt. It proves that a movie can be cryptic, but it cannot afford to be dull. Unfortunately, Backrooms is often both.
The Premise: A Therapist Trapped in a Meme
Set in the drab aesthetic of 1990, the film follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a failed architect who now runs a failing furniture store. His life is a loop of misery: a bitter divorce, financial ruin, and a therapist (Renate Reinsve as Mary Kline) who cannot break through his wall of self-pity.
One night, while messing with a faulty circuit breaker, Clark discovers he can walk through a wall in his basement. On the other side lies The Backrooms — an infinite maze of identical, sickly yellow rooms, buzzing lights, and the stench of moist carpet. Naturally, instead of running for the hills, Clark becomes obsessed. When he disappears, Mary must venture into the nightmare to save him.
The film tries to use the Backrooms as a metaphor for mental health: “We all have our loops, our habits,” Mary says. Clark is so trapped in his own depression that a literal infinite prison feels like home. It is a neat idea. But the film gets so lost in the metaphor that it forgets to be entertaining.
The Good: A Masterclass in Uncomfortable Vibes
You cannot fault the technical execution. If you want a vibe, Backrooms has it in spades.
- Production Design is Nightmarish: The set design is a character in itself. The team built massive, modular sets that stretch on forever. The “construction workers on acid” description fits. You see a chair half-planted in the floor, a backwards stop sign, or a cardboard cutout speaking gibberish. It captures the uncanny valley logic of a dream.
- Sound Design Will Break You: The constant hum-buzz of fluorescent lights is usually background noise. Here, it is a weapon. Composers Parsons and Edo Van Breemen create a dissonant, grating soundscape that gets under your skin. It is deeply unpleasant to listen to, which is exactly the point.
- Ejiofor and Reinsve Are Trying: Ejiofor brings a weary desperation to Clark, transforming from a sad sack into a man possessed by the void. Reinsve, so good in The Worst Person in the World, brings a “slinky intelligence” to the therapist role, even if the script gives her very little to work with.
The film works best as a “sightseeing tour of disquieting office buildings.” For the first hour, it is genuinely unsettling.
The Bad: The Curse of the Third Act
Here is where the wheels fall off. The movie has a massive tonal shift. It abandons the subtle, “what-did-I-just-see” dread for pseudo-body horror and loud noises. The creature design, once hidden in the periphery, steps into the light and becomes… silly.
The biggest sin, however, is the ending. It is frustratingly vague. Mark Duplass shows up as a scientist, there is a mention of a shady company called Async (a nod to the web series), and then… nothing. Mary wakes up in an interrogation room. She asks if she can leave. The scientist refuses to answer. Cut to a montage. Roll credits.
The Playlist gave the film an “A” grade, calling it a “terrifying mental-health tragedy.” But many critics and fans disagree strongly. TheWrap noted, “The more Backrooms tries to have a point, the more pointless it feels.” The Irish Times called it a success, but the general consensus is that the film “loses steam by its cryptic end.”
The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes sits at 72% , a steep drop from the critics’ 88%, because regular viewers are tired of movies that refuse to answer basic questions. One user review perfectly summarized the frustration by comparing the movie to a 5-star restaurant that serves a raw steak for dessert.
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Verdict: A Visual Feast of Nothing
Kane Parsons is undeniably talented. His eye for composition and his understanding of spatial horror are remarkable for a first-time director. But Backrooms feels less like a movie and more like an extended YouTube video with a budget.
It is a film that explains the wrong things and ignores the right ones. It spends 20 minutes on Clark’s sad commercial shoots but rushes through the actual horror. By the end, you realize the Backrooms aren’t scary because they are infinite. They are scary because you are trapped in a theater watching them for 110 minutes.
For fans of the original web series who want lore references, you might enjoy the Easter eggs. For everyone else looking for a coherent horror movie, this is a frustrating, beautifully shot, and deeply dull experience.
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