What evil lurks in the drabbest of interiors?The meme-rooted Backrooms is the latest movie to pull its mounting horrors out of liminal spaces. Exit 8, released earlier this year, was set entirely in a subway corridor. In Backrooms, a struggling furniture salesperson discovers an underground labyrinth beneath his store, all lined with yellow, wallpapered walls and fluorescent lighting.

The film is well-made but strays too far from the source material in its search for a deeper meaning.

‘Backrooms,’ A24’s horror hit, frames the allure of nostalgia as a slow death—online, the Backrooms is often interpreted as a gateway to a past that never existed.