Nearly seven years have passed since the internet first encountered the concept of the Backrooms, and in that time, this crowd-sourced online horror sensation has captivated the globe. A whole subcommunity has emerged around the idea, producing a range of short stories, creepypastas, video game adaptations, and YouTube short films (along with, oddly enough, inspiring ). Now, as expected, the concept has transcended the web and been embraced by Hollywood; specifically, beloved indie studio A24 (continuing their dedicated focus on niche horror like ) will release a feature film based on the idea, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, also known as Kane Pixels—the creator of the hugely popular Backrooms short film series on YouTube.
Today, A24 unveiled the first trailer for the film, and it’s as enigmatic and mysterious as anticipated. With an excited yet anxious voiceover in the background discussing the discovery of a place that “goes on and on and on,” the trailer consists of a single shot descending through a series of floors, each more unsettling and surreal than the last, eventually landing in the titular labyrinth of rooms. Fans of the expanding fictional universe will surely be intrigued by this brief glimpse, but for others, the trailer will likely spark one key question: what exactly are the Backrooms?
The Backrooms, Explained
The concept of the Backrooms first emerged in May 2019 on 4chan (much like many of the internet’s most chilling phenomena), , the site’s board focused on unexplained and potentially supernatural events. The anonymous original poster shared an image of a large, fluorescent-lit room fully carpeted and divided by partition walls. Soon after, another anonymous user replied with a roleplay post that marked the first official use of the term and the initial description of this fictional location. They described “six-hundred million square miles of randomly divided empty rooms,” characterized by “the stench of old damp carpet, the eeriness of a single yellow hue,” and “the constant hum of fluorescent lights at their loudest.” It would take another five years for the original image to be revealed as nothing more than an unfinished room in a furniture store under renovation, but by then, the image had already taken on a new, sinister meaning.
Nearly immediately, the post went viral across the internet, and bit by bit, the lore of the Backrooms was built through community storytelling. To enter this extra-dimensional space, one must “no-clip” out of reality (a term derived from a common video game glitch where a player character passes through walls into areas not intended to be accessed), a process only possible in physical spaces where matter is so unstable that the laws of physics weaken, allowing one to slip through temporary gaps in physical boundaries.
Once someone successfully no-clips, they arrive in the Backrooms—but what that entails depends entirely on how one engages with the broader fanbase’s contributions. The primary debate within the community revolves around whether the Backrooms consist of multiple distinct “floors” — some fans argue there are hundreds of unique levels, each with its own style and inhabitants, while others favor the original, minimalist endless room, terrifying precisely because of its impossibility and unending ordinariness.
From YouTube to A24 Feature
Kane Parsons established what might be considered the definitive guide to the Backrooms with his YouTube series of the same name (itself deeply influenced by analog horror, another internet-based horror concept defined by low-quality videography resembling local cable broadcasts). Parsons’ Backrooms YouTube series offers a unique take on the concept, introducing a secret federal organization and several central characters.
However, the charm of collective internet storytelling like the Backrooms lies in the vast narrative possibilities brought by diverse ideas. Whether Parsons’ film features 100 levels or just one, his deep understanding of the concept and the open-ended nature of its potential mean both fans and newcomers are in for a unique, chilling experience when Backrooms hits theaters.