Backrooms review: Eerie new horror from 20 year old director goes deep | Films | Entertainment

Back in 2022, 16-year-old Kane Parsons uploaded a horror short called The Backrooms (Found Footage). Presented as a VHS tape recording from 30 years ago, the video depicts an eerie liminal space of endless yellow rooms with random objects and unknown monsters on the prowl.

A form of creepypasta (a horror legend posted on the internet), it wasn’t long before Parsons was given the opportunity to make his directorial debut at just 20 years old with a feature-length A24 movie based on his web series. Already tracking to have one of the biggest horror openings of all time, Backrooms is set in 1990 and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a furniture store owner who discovers the endless liminal spaces through the wall of the building’s basement.

Ejiofor gives a superb performance as Clark, a struggling alcoholic divorcee who frequently visits his therapist, Dr Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), a woman haunted by her own trauma. Much of this refreshingly original psychological horror follows the leads as they explore the spooky emptiness of these strange, transient spaces, with Will Soodik’s excellent script tackling themes of memory and dread.

What are the backrooms? Who built them and placed these objects here? Are there people or things living there? Does it end? What if there’s no reason behind it all? It’s simultaneously fascinating and disturbing, as is why we as an audience are so drawn to explore these spaces that fill us with unease. Basically, if you were intrigued by the Upside Down in the early stages of Stranger Things, this film is for you.

Backrooms is out now in cinemas.