The internet is freaking out about Backrooms, the 4chan-post-turned A24 film
Somewhere in the depths of the internet, there’s a photo. It shows a room with a linoleum floor, yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lights. There are no people in it, nor are there any signs of an exit. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know it isn’t a photo – it’s a feeling. One that Backrooms captures with frightening accuracy.
Don’t worry, you won’t come across any spoilers for Backrooms in this review. I won’t be mentioning anything beyond what’s already in trailers or the public domain. The film will hit Swiss cinemas on 18 June.
When I saw the trailer for Backrooms, it triggered a flashback. It was a memory of a recurring dream that haunted me as a child; one where I’d find myself alone in a run-down version of the Alpamare water park, surrounded by countless flumes, with no exit in sight. The longer I searched for a way out, the more I’d get lost in the maze of water slides. I’d wake up feeling unsettled, yet kind of nostalgic. It was like a dark aura hovering over a beloved place.
In May 2019, one anonymous 4chan member likely experienced something similar. They posted a photo of an empty building, calling on other users to share their own photos that seemed «off». As a result, the Backrooms craze took off.
Source: 4chan
Since then, people have been flooding the internet with pictures and animations of shopping centres at night, empty underground parking garages and sterile-looking hallways that feel both oppressive and familiar. It’s as if you’re all alone, trapped in a labyrinth of linoleum floors, ceiling tiles and cool fluorescent lights, accompanied only by ominous elevator music.
One prominent name to emerge from this was Kane Pixels, whose real name is Kane Parsons. Following the viral success of his YouTube series Backrooms (Found Footage) in 2022, the 21-year-old director took a punt on a feature film. He worked with production company A24 to shoot the thriller Backrooms, based on a screenplay by Will Soodik.
The film
Unlike in Parsons’ animated films, you don’t enter the Backrooms from a first-person perspective. Instead, you follow Clark (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor from 12 Years a Slave), whose life has been in shambles ever since a breakup. Looking for help, he turns to Dr Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), a therapist who hides her emotional distance behind a façade of professionalism. A monotonous voice, a vacant expression. It makes me want to reach through the screen and shake her awake. Which is exactly what she tries to do with Clark.
The chaos in Clark’s life finally pushes him over the edge when he finds a secret door in the basement of his furniture store. A portal into a world of yellow wallpaper and bizarre architecture – a world that, as he soon discovers during his nightly visits, constantly reinvents itself. There are pillars in places that don’t require them, walls that stop halfway and furniture scattered haphazardly around the rooms. A massive complex that creates itself through its own memories. And the more often he enters the labyrinth, the further he strays from its origin. That’s how Clark explains the phenomenon.
Source: A24
Speaking as if he’s had a breakthrough, Clark tells Dr Kline about the strange place. She listens in the way she always does – keeping quiet, nodding, seeming distant. A portal to another world? To her, it’s just another symptom of Clark’s mental state. Keen to prove to her that he isn’t losing his mind, Clark convinces his employee and her boyfriend to join him on a foray into the labyrinth of the Backrooms, bringing a video camera to capture the proof.
Source: A24
After that, the perspective shifts to the found footage. Something I’ve known since watching The Blair Witch Project (which we watched in religious studies class in primary school, no less!) indicates that disaster is about to unfold. The three venture deeper into the maze, opening doors to the dark reaches of the Backrooms. Here, they’re no longer able to bask in the protective glow of the halogen lighting – and Dr Kline is their last hope.
Clark believes, Kline doubts
Chiwetel Ejiofor’s facial expressions make me sense his fear before anything even happens. It’s just at the start of the film that I don’t quite believe everything he says. By the end, I understand why. None of this is a mistake – it’s intentional. Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value, Presumed Innocent) also gives a strong performance, especially in her scenes with Clark. My sympathies oscillate between the two. I hope for the therapist’s sake that Clark will finally come to his senses, and at the same time, I hope she believes Clark.
Source: A24
Creepypasta, Dreamcore and the uncanny valley effect
Backrooms’ ability to succeed as a film hinges on a single question: has Parsons managed to capture the essence of the internet phenomenon on the big screen? If you ask me, the answer is yes. This isn’t thanks to jump scares. No, it’s more about that atmosphere that makes your blood run cold. It’s the tinkling of wind chimes when there’s no wind. It’s the soft hum of light bulbs. Or the faint white noise reminiscent of those eerie dial-up modem handshakes you’d hear when making phone calls in the early 2000s.
ASMR at its best.
All of that ensnares me in the film’s grip, leaving me with the desire to dive in deeper. To join Clark as he goes on exploring the approximately 2,800 square metres of film set. I want to keep revisiting these creepy places, keen to see what’s changed each time. To understand the connections. The madness.
Everything.
Source: A24
If you’re chronically online, familiar with Creepypasta, a fan of Weirdcore or feel transfixed by the uncanny valley effect, a lot of the film will feel scarily familiar to you. However, you don’t need to know about any of that stuff to watch Backrooms. The film is more of a historical record of the internet, taking a «show don’t tell» approach. It’s up to us, the audience, to decide what to believe.
If you’ve never consciously noticed this aesthetic, the film will give you an honest glimpse into what goes on behind the closed doors of the internet. At the same time, you’ll get a sense that it has captured something real. It’s a bit like in Apple’s Severance, where merely the sight of an empty hallway is enough to make you feel like something’s seriously wrong.
The story follows the same logic as the Backrooms itself, going deeper and deeper, plunging ever further into madness. If you go with the flow, you’ll be rewarded with that disquieting, indescribable – and yet familiar – atmosphere. It’s that feeling you get at 4 a.m. The one when you should’ve gone to sleep ages ago, but are instead still scouring the darkest corners of the internet – the pull, the curiosity and the thrill stronger than anything common sense could throw at it.
In a nutshell
Backrooms takes an eerie internet phenomenon to the silver screen
I didn’t just watch Backrooms. I practically stepped inside the film – and barely found my way out. Kane Parsons has taken the thing he’s been doing for years (transforming rooms into unsettling scenes) and brought it to the big screen for the first time.
The atmosphere is just right, as is the cast. And the set feels bigger than the 2,800 square metres mentioned in the film. Either way, I haven’t quite made it out of the maze yet. It’s just like I’m back in the Alpamare water park.
Painting the walls just before handing over the flat? Making your own kimchi? Soldering a broken raclette oven? There's nothing you can't do yourself. Well, perhaps sometimes, but I'll definitely give it a try.
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