What happens when a 20-year-old YouTuber gets handed $10 million, an A24 deal, and two Oscar-caliber actors? You get Backrooms — the horror film everyone is talking about, and for very good reason.

From Creepypasta to the Cineplex

Backrooms opened nationwide on May 29, 2026, and audiences showed up in a massive way. Director Kane Parsons — known online as Kane Pixels — first turned heads in 2022 when his eerie, found-footage-style YouTube shorts about an endless labyrinth of fluorescent-lit, yellow-carpeted hallways racked up over 200 million views. The concept, rooted in internet creepypasta lore, taps into a universal, deeply unsettling dread: the fear of being somewhere wrong, somewhere familiar yet utterly alien.

A24, Chernin Entertainment, and producers James Wan and Shawn Levy saw the potential early, announcing the film adaptation in February 2023. The result is a sci-fi horror story following a therapist (Renate Reinsve) whose patient — a struggling interior designer named Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) — disappears into a parallel dimension of infinite, empty rooms.

Box Office Shock

Hollywood wasn't fully prepared for what happened opening weekend. Early tracking had projected a $20–45 million debut, but Backrooms stunned the industry with an estimated $81–82 million domestic opening — the largest opening weekend ever recorded for an original horror film.

The film's $10 million budget makes this result even more extraordinary. According to The New York Times, it was young moviegoers who powered the surge, adding to growing evidence that Gen Z will absolutely show up to theaters — when the content speaks to them.

What Critics Are Saying

The critical reception has been nearly as impressive as the box office. Backrooms earned a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes (Certified Fresh) based on 174 reviews, with a Critics Consensus reading:

"A startlingly assured feature debut from director Kane Parsons, Backrooms bends the liminal spaces that have haunted the internet for years into a horror film that's as mesmerizing as it is terrifying."

The Wall Street Journal's Kyle Smith wrote:

"The movie's puzzle-palace look and its boldly consistent color scheme conjure up a deep-in-the-bones unease that much more experienced directors rarely manage to create." Rolling Stone called it "the carbonara of creepypasta cinema, adding savory Kubrickian elements to its source material."

The Director's Vision

Parsons has been refreshingly candid about what the film means beneath its surface of horror. In a recent interview with The AU Review, he described the Backrooms as "a reflection of the broader economic and industrial trends that have constructed this very tangible box that a lot of people feel an anxiety of being placed in." He also spoke about protecting the film's raw, instinctive energy during production — leaning into scenes that "just feel right" rather than over-explaining them. At just 20 years old, Parsons trained entirely outside the traditional Hollywood system, and according to Hypebeast, he's "delivered one of the most assured feature debuts in recent memory."

Why It Matters

Backrooms isn't just a great horror movie — it's a cultural event. It proves that internet folklore can translate into serious, theatrical cinema. It proves that A24's formula of bold, atmospheric storytelling still has enormous commercial power. And it proves that the next generation of filmmakers doesn't need film school, industry connections, or a franchise IP to break through. Sometimes, all it takes is a hallway that goes on forever.

Backrooms is rated R and is now playing in theaters nationwide.

© A24