‘Backrooms’ – Review Thread

A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.

Director: Kane Parsons

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell

Distributor: A24

Rotten Tomatoes: N/A (updating)

Metacritic: N/A (updating)

Some Reviews (updating):

I Couldn't Help But Wonder – Naz Perez – 9.5 / 10

This is the kind of psychological smart horror I have been hungry for since 'Heretic'. And I think A24 has another big franchise on their hands if they want to continue this mythology on the big screen. Renate Reinsve gives one of the most quietly devastating performances of the year, and this is her first horror film ever. Aesthetic, theme, performance, world-building. It is all there. 9.5/10 – only docked because I think it could have gone a half-step deeper into the philosophical undertow.

The Prague Reporter – Jason Pirodsky – 3.5 / 4

Still, for its minor flaws, Backrooms feels like the arrival of something genuinely new in mainstream horror: a studio-backed feature that still retains the unsettling weirdness and experimental spirit of internet-born horror storytelling. Parsons translates the uncanny dread of the original creepypasta into cinematic form with startling confidence, creating images and spaces that linger in the mind long after the credits roll. Like the Backrooms themselves, this is a film that’s difficult to fully explain—but impossible to forget.

NextBestPicture – Dan Bayer – 8 / 10

Both unconventionally scary and satisfying, Kane Parsons successfully brings his web series to the big screen as a transfixing exercise in sustained tension. Immaculately creepy, mind-boggling production design.

IGN – Lex Brusco – 8 / 10

Backrooms expertly expands on the conceptual groundwork of the YouTube series with smart visual composition, beautifully terrifying production design, a complex protagonist, and a return to Kane Parsons’ roots of computer generated sequences that pack a serious punch. The film also opens the doors to some compelling pathways to deepen the lore even more, if newcomers are willing to meet the film on its level, where it isn’t going to spoon-feed anyone. Parsons’ film is a harrowing trip to the dark heart of fractured memory, loneliness, and inner turmoil. It takes what’s psychologically horrifying about the liminality of life and transmogrifies it into something truly terrifying. That’s something the concept has always done well, and its future seems bright with Parsons at the helm of the nightmarish maze.

The AU Review – Peter Gray – 4 / 5

Rather than reducing the Backrooms into conventional monster horror, Parsons preserves the existential dread that made the original creepypasta resonate so powerfully online. The result is a horror film that feels genuinely singular: eerie, melancholy, deeply uncanny, and willing to trust audiences enough to leave them lost inside its maze.

DiscussingFilm – Andrew J. Salazar – 3.5 / 5

At its best, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is as claustrophobic and nerve-wracking as his viral web series. Parsons and co-composer Edo Van Breemen (another Osgood Perkins collaborator) embellish the movie with creepy yet atmospheric synths, adding to what fans have always wanted from such an adaptation. At its lowest, though, this horror film leaves more to be desired in its scares and plotting (such as the rather simple purpose that Mark Duplass’ Async agent serves in his brief screen time). Admittedly, the bulk of these hiccups and divisive aspects stem from a risk taken or a clear decision made. And for a filmmaker as young and adventurous as Parsons, some credit is due for taking so many swings. I mean, for a director who had established industry names like Osgood Perkins, Shawn Levy, and James Wan in line to back his first feature at only 19 years of age, it would have been easy for Parsons to phone it in when so much of his source material works so well on its own. But he didn’t, and that’s how you know he’s here to stay.

IndieWire – Ryan Lattanzio – 'B'

The budget-goosed maximalism of Parsons’ movie might make it less likely to scare the hell out of you than watching his forbidden-feeling videos unspool out of your laptop in bed at night. Will Soodik’s script attempts to anchor the “Backrooms” lore in psychological realism that would feel hokey without performances so psychically attuned to Parsons’ vision. Ejiofor is a sad-sack melancholic before he turns increasingly crazed and tries to play liminal-space detective, while Norwegian actress Reinsve proves she’s both Final Girl material and “The Worst Person in the World.” “Backrooms” is a movie more likely to blow young minds, but remember the first horror movie you saw that changed who you were? This movie will be that for a lot of people.

DEADLINE – Pete Hammond

The sheer cinematic sophistication of this feature film adaptation of the You Tube series should not be surprising when you consider some of its many producers are the likes of James Wan, Shawn Levy, Perkins, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and more. Clearly A24 and its production partners have given Parsons some heavyweight support and guidance in realizing a movie version of a cerebral idea that works on its own terms and could spark a franchise. After all it is the walls and the doors that are the real stars here

CBR – Caralynn Matassa – 6 / 10

Incredibly immersive production design, especially the massive Backrooms set and unsettling architectural details. Strong atmosphere and dread, helped by anxious found-footage-style camerawork and eerie 1990s aesthetics. But the story loses some coherence in the back half, especially once Mary takes over more of the narrative. Renate Reinsve feels slightly miscast, despite her talent. The movie doesn't fully live up to the hype, ending with more disorienting confusion than satisfying impact.