From creepypasta to Hollywood: Everything you need to know about 'Backrooms' and liminal horror

By David Mouriquand Published on 25/05/2026 - 15:38 GMT+2 Share Comments Share Facebook Twitter Flipboard Send Reddit Linkedin Messenger Telegram VK Bluesky Threads Whatsapp

Ever been in an empty corridor which seems to stretch on forever, or found yourself in a deserted room that feels "off"? An upcoming film taps into "liminality", an important concept in architecture, psychology and anthropology. Here's everything you need to know about 'Backrooms'.

2026’s breakout horror film could be around the corner.

ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT

Directed by 20-year-old YouTuber and VFX artist Kane Parsons – aka Kane Pixels – Backrooms is the adaptation of an internet ‘creepypasta’ which he previously explored in a series of YouTube videos. It’s one of the most anticipated horror films of the year, as well as responsible for renewing fascination in liminal spaces.

A24, the studio behind Moonlight, Everything Everywhere All At Once and Marty Supreme, picked up the project, thereby making Parsons the youngest director to ever sign with them. Their seal of approval has maximised Backrooms’ indie hit-in-the-making credentials, but also helped attract an impressive cast for Parsons’ debut.

The film follows therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value, and the recent Palme d’Or winner Fjord) as she ventures into an otherworldly dimension – the titular Backrooms - in search of her missing patient, failed architect Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

"I found something," Ejiofor tells Reinsve in the teaser trailer, as Parsons' camera descends through a series of empty rooms. "I found a place," he continues. "It's massive in there. It just goes on, and on, and on... All these rooms. It builds them. Actually, more like it remembers them."

Intrigued? Good. But if you’re still wondering why this upcoming horror film is generating so much buzz, let us be your guide... Provided we don’t get lost in seemingly endless corridors.

A viral hellscape: What are the Backrooms?

The Backrooms phenomenon stems back to one image, anonymously posted in 2019 on 4chan Creepypasta - the catchall term for internet-spawned horror urban legends that include Slender Man, Jeff The Killer and Smile Dog.

The picture of a windowless and empty space composed of sickly yellow walls and carpets was posted with the following description: "If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you."

More disquieting pictures were posted, lores were constructed, and in the case of Kane Parsons, horror shorts were created. His web series went viral and was viewed by hundreds of millions.

A liminal hellscape was created. And seven years later, a cinematic take on this strange corner of internet culture is about to lure you in...

Neither here nor there: What is a liminal space?

The term "liminality" refers to a transitory state and comes from the Latin root "limen", meaning "threshold." The concept is important in architecture, psychology, and anthropology.

It can refer to actual spaces, like hotel hallways or airport gates. Essentially, spaces of transition and potential transformation which are simultaneously familiar and eerie.

They can also be everyday spaces like semi-deserted shopping malls, anonymous-looking corporate interiors, or empty hallways – sights which feel ethereal, where time could be suspended. They are neither alienating enough to be considered horrific, but nor do they feel ordinary enough to be reassuring.

Photos of these uncanny spaces have sparked interest in the liminality of physical spaces, as well as created a horror sub-genre in which subversion is key. The elusive sense of nostalgia emanating from an aesthetic is unsettled by a disturbing emptiness, as well as the imaged threat of a lurking presence that could stalk the endless hallways. Thus, what feels initially familiar is destabilised by a sense of the unknown, and architecture influences human emotions.

Something feels “off”, and you’re stuck in limbo, torn apart by a maddening suspension between calmness and profound unease.

A further psychological component is at play, as these seemingly never-ending liminal spaces not only nudge you towards the elusive threshold of darkness but tap into modern day anxieties plaguing certain generations, such as loneliness, labyrinthine behavioural patterns of your own making, and the existential dread decrying from lost hope.

Comforted? You really shouldn’t be.

Get disorientated: Will Backrooms be the breakout horror hit of 2026?

Put simply: Too soon to say. However, liminal horror is going mainstream – especially following the 2024 horror I Saw The TV Glow and last year’s Exit 8. Both explored the eeriness of liminality, especially the latter.

Exit 8 is the Japanese psychological horror based on the 2023 video game of the same name, which sees players navigate a near-deserted and looping underground metro station, where they must avoid anomalies and make it out alive.

The film adaptation, directed by Genki Kawamura, managed to capture the subtleties of liminal horror, further proving that there’s a lot more to the multifaceted genre than cheap jump scares.

If Parsons can toy with the uncanny nature of contemporary architecture and tease out burrowed strands of meaning from the spaces where a person and the mind can lose themselves, Backrooms could successfully untether the viewer and become a new generation’s The Blair Witch Project (by way of Severance).

The odds are promising, as Parsons isn’t the first YouTuber to prosperously transition to the big screen horror. See: David F Sandberg’s Lights Out, the Philippou brothers’ Talk To Me and Bring Her Back, as well as Markiplier’s Iron Lung as examples of successful online-to-theatrical chiller shifts.

Then again, we did get 2018’s Slender Man, which completely botched the creepypasta boogieman, so hopefully the 4chan crossover won’t confirm itself as a cinematic kiss of death.

Some European horror hounds can get lost in Backrooms this week. It is released at the end of May in the UK, Netherlands, Poland and Italy, while French, Spanish and German audiences will have to sit tight until next month. Good luck. And don’t get lost.

Go to accessibility shortcuts Share Comments

Read more

Cinema

Film of the Week: ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu’