Dir. Kane Parsons · 2026 · 110 min · streaming on HBO Max in the US
The Backrooms began as a creepypasta about an endless maze of empty, yellow-lit rooms that you can "clip" into from the real world, and grew into a viral YouTube series made by Kane Parsons. This is his feature debut, backed by A24 with James Wan, Shawn Levy and Osgood Perkins among the producers, on a reported budget of around ten million dollars. It went on to become the studio's biggest hit.
The film is set in 1990. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, a furniture-store manager who is stuck in his life and says so to his therapist, played by Renate Reinsve. Then he clips through a wall in the store's basement and finds the first of the impossible rooms. That is as far as this review goes; the film is better if you meet the rest of it cold.
Critics are warm on the look. The Irish Times praises the production design by Danny Vermette, and IndieWire's point that the dread comes from what is not there suits a film about empty corridors. RogerEbert.com singles out the sound design and score, and the staging of the chase sequences.
They also agree on the two leads. RogerEbert.com notes that Ejiofor and Reinsve avoid "hammy horror movie acting" and often respond with shocked silence, which leaves the audience to imagine the rest. NME adds that a dose of knowing humour keeps a meme-born premise from curdling into solemnity.
"Backrooms sometimes feels like it lacks the confidence to get as terrifyingly dreamlike as it could have been."
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
That quote is the main complaint: the film explains more than a dream-logic horror film should, and NME says the explanation will feel like too much for some viewers and too little for others. RogerEbert.com also finds it less weird than Eraserhead or Skinamarink. NME says the characters are thinner than the spaces around them, and Seattle Refined goes further, calling the writing flat and the themes shallow despite what it describes as unusually competent technique for a first-time director.
So the critics are not split on the craft, only on whether craft is enough. The aggregate sits comfortably on the positive side (around 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and 76 on Metacritic, by Wikipedia's tally at the time of writing), which is where this score lands: a smart, creepy debut that is more promising than perfect.
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Following its cinema run, Backrooms arrived on HBO Max in the US on 25 September 2026 according to trade reports, and it has been out for digital rental and on disc. Availability varies by country, so check which service or shop carries it where you live before you plan the evening.