Lost in the 'Backrooms': A Film Trapped in Its Own Maze

By Natalie McCarty

As my little brother put it best, “This was a whole bunch of bullshit.”  

That's perhaps a harsher opening than Kane Parsons' feature debut deserves, but it captures the overwhelming frustration I felt walking out of Backrooms. Not because the film is devoid of talent, ambition, or effective scares (it isn't), but because it constantly feels as though it's standing on the precipice of becoming something great without ever actually taking the leap. 

Courtesy of A24

Based on Parsons' viral YouTube series, Backrooms follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a furniture salesman who discovers a portal beneath his showroom leading to an endless maze of fluorescent-lit rooms and corridors. As he becomes consumed by the mystery, others are pulled into the strange dimension, forcing them to confront both the horrors lurking within and the emotional baggage they bring with them. Among them is his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), whose own buried traumas begin to surface as she is drawn into the Backrooms in search of Clark and an explanation for what’s happening.

The biggest issue is that the film never quite figures out what it wants to be. The horror and suspense are often genuinely effective. Parsons understands atmosphere, and there are stretches where the endless yellow hallways feel deeply unnerving. The Backrooms themselves are rendered with impressive detail and scale, creating an environment that feels simultaneously familiar and alien. The set design is easily the film's greatest strength and a testament to what Parsons can accomplish when given a substantial budget.

But… the story itself feels like a whole lot of nothing.

For much of its runtime, Backrooms teases revelations, answers, and narrative payoffs that never fully materialize. I kept waiting for the film to go somewhere—to push further into its mythology, its horror, or even its emotional stakes—but it remains frustratingly static. The ambiguity and vagueness here feel less like a deliberate extension of the series’ mythos and more like underdevelopment, which is especially disappointing given that the original YouTube work thrived on ambiguity that still felt structurally intentional, as if it was actively building a story through absence. Here, however, that balance feels lost. The film leans heavily into a narrative-driven thread, but it never fully integrates that psychological storyline with the Backrooms themselves. Instead of tension between character interiority and the liminal horror, we get a story that feels like it is orbiting the Backrooms rather than inhabiting them. 

Courtesy of A24

Ironically, the film's greatest asset is the very thing it spends surprisingly little time embracing. Had Backrooms largely confined itself to the liminal labyrinth and leaned harder into pure horror, it might have become something truly memorable. Instead, it attempts to build a larger narrative framework around the concept, but never raises the stakes enough to justify that shift. If the film wanted to hinge so much on character drama and broader mythology, it needed to deliver stronger writing, deeper characterization, or more substantial storytelling.

In many ways, it feels like the franchise blueprint was backwards. An elevated-budget adaptation of Parsons' original shorts—contained, terrifying, and singularly focused on the space itself—could have served as a powerful introduction to the world. Then, once audiences were invested, a sequel could have expanded the mythology and narrative ambitions. The concept is rich enough to sustain an entire franchise. That's what makes it disappointing to watch it drift toward something resembling the trajectory of Five Nights at Freddy's, prioritizing lore and explanation before fully capitalizing on what made the premise compelling in the first place.

None of this diminishes Parsons' obvious talent as a visual storyteller. The fact that a filmmaker this young was able to bring such a distinctive internet phenomenon to life on this scale is genuinely exciting. There are moments throughout Backrooms that showcase a filmmaker with remarkable instincts for tension and imagery.

Courtesy of A24

Unfortunately, those strengths are ultimately undermined by a script that never finds its footing. The world is fascinating. The production design is excellent. The horror works. But the writing repeatedly pulls the film away from its most compelling qualities, resulting in a movie that feels less than the sum of its parts.

Backrooms isn't a disaster, merely it's something almost more frustrating: a film packed with potential that never quite escapes its own maze.