4/5 starsTwenty-year-old YouTube creator Kane Parsons delivers an astonishing debut with the unsettling analogue horror film Backrooms.Adapted from his own web series that was inspired by a popular online “creepypasta” recounting labyrinthine liminal spaces, the film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve as a pair of unfortunate souls trapped in a network of seemingly impossible subterranean rooms.Revered tastemakers A24 greenlit the film, with horror veterans James Wan (The Conjuring) and Osgood Perkins (Longlegs) among its producers.The film is set in 1990, where failed architect Clark (Ejiofor) runs a furniture showroom. After his marriage collapses – in part due to his excessive drinking – he moves into the showroom’s bedding department full time, where he witnesses strange nighttime phenomena affecting the store’s power.Upon investigation, Clark discovers an invisible doorway in one of the walls that leads into a bizarre yellow room filled with discarded furniture. The room is connected to a series of interconnected spaces, and Clark enlists his reluctant assistant manager Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and her boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett) to help him document his discovery.
Review | Backrooms: A24’s liminal space horror is a stunning, disorienting debut
A bold horror tale directed by YouTube creator Kane Parsons, Backrooms was inspired by the popular Portal video games.










