Backrooms

Backrooms is the debut feature from YouTuber Kane Parsons, teaming up with A24 to adapt his popular web series. 

Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the owner of a discount furniture store that’s experiencing electrical issues. One night, Clark discovers a portal in the store to a maze of rooms and decides he needs to document this phenomenon with his employees. 

Backrooms is arguably one of the biggest films of 2026. It has already made over $125 million at the box office from a $10 million budget and has been well-received by critics. Backrooms was distributed by A24, which gives the film a lot of prestige, and the company has been rewarded with one of its highest-grossing films. Atomic Monster, Oddfellows Entertainment, and 21 Laps Entertainment served as production companies, with James Wan, Osgood Perkins, and Shawn Levy credited as producers. 

Parsons is only 20-years-old, which makes him one of the youngest directors of a successful feature film. He joins a growing list of YouTubers turned filmmakers, a list that includes the Philippou Twins, Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach, and Curry Barker. Parsons made a film with a lot of confidence, as he shows technical and narrative ambition. 

The film opened with a fantastic found footage sequence where a growling monster was chasing someone. It was genuinely scary because of the monstrous sounds, the confusing surroundings, and the creature remained unseen. 

Parsons knew how to create an unsettling atmosphere: Backrooms could have made a great found footage film if it had stuck to that style. Parsons seemed to be inspired by David Lynch. Lynch was known for making surreal films, and Backrooms had a surreal quality. The backrooms were an ungodly maze that resembled being in an M.C. Escher painting. However, the surrealism and confusion extended to the story. 

Backrooms seemed straightforward at first. Clark finds the backrooms, decides to explore them to gather evidence of their existence, and his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), attempts to find him when he doesn’t show up. Both of them had traumatic experiences. Clark was a recently divorced man and a recovering alcoholic who was resentful towards his ex-wife. 

He was a character who was filled with bitterness. Mary's trauma involved her mother, who had mental health issues and kept her trapped in a house when she was young. Parsons stated that Backrooms was influenced by video games, and the Silent Hill games did feel like an inspiration. The backrooms projected Clark and Mary’s traumas and forced them to confront them. It made Backrooms for two-thirds of the runtime. 

Backrooms has a twist that changed the story and genre. It wasn’t as clever as the filmmakers thought it was. There was some set-up because there were hints that something bigger was going on, but the conclusion just raised a load of questions. It was an unsatisfying ending.

Parsons is clearly a talented young man who shows a lot of ambition. Filmmakers twice his age wouldn’t dare make. Whilst frustrating at times, Parsons has made a mark.