The Wasteland Reviewer

Backrooms (2026) Written Review

Have you ever felt like you were lost in an eerie and unknowable space? There are certain spaces that you will find in life that will chill you to the bone and unnerve you deeply. This idea of liminal spaces is so culturally impactful that there is an entire sub-Reddit dedicated to it. Based on the wild creepy pasta, young creative Kane Parsons crafted an entire web series that leaned into the terror of such spaces. What is even more wild is that A24 brought Parsons on to create a cinematic adaptation of this series and bring it to the big screen. Yellow walls galore…and plenty of terror around every corner. 

What does this young 20-year-old director have up his sleeve to bring this concept to life? First, they excelled at creating this concept in a practical manner. The production design of this is quite astounding. Each turn reveals a wholly unique and unnerving space with random items and uncomfortably familiar dimensions. As the film goes on, the world of these liminal spaces becomes more intricate and creative. The combination of uncomfortable lighting and dynamic camera work, you feel like you are on edge at every moment throughout Parsons’ film. His vision is brought to life quite impressively by cinematographer Jeremy Cox. The atmosphere is enhanced by the unnerving and aethereal tones of Parsons and Edo Van Breeman’s score. Pacing-wise, the film does struggle a bit when it focuses more on the regular world events and building up the characters. Parsons’ film is an impressive execution of terror from a found footage cold open to a large-scale finale. 

Does Will Soodik’s adapted screenplay capitalize on Parson’ impressive concept? Writing is certainly where the film struggles to find its footing. From a genre standpoint, the thrills are all there. The film does attempt to establish characters, a narrative, world-building, and themes but many of these come up short. The world-building is certainly eerie and Soodik’s keeps the mystery around the liminal space. Character-wise, there is a depressed and angry architect who runs a furniture store who finds this place in the basement of his store. He was thrown out by his wife and certainly goes on a haunting journey. When he goes missing, his therapist searches for him while processing her own childhood trauma and finds herself in this space. The narrative is quite loose and leans more into chance than anything narratively impressive. Thematically, the film explores trauma and human condition. The liminal space is something that is oddly living in some shape or form. There is a mirror type of nature to it and forces its inhabitants to face things they have experienced. Even though the film does not spell too much out, it does beat you over the head with information and perspective when it does. 

Does the cast add much to the experience? Much of the film’s impact lies in the experience of it and the terror that Parsons creates. But there are a few performances that give the film some added layers. Renate Reinsve is such a talented Norwegian actor and her performances in Joachim Trier’s films are quite impressive. Her turn in Backrooms is quite restrained with only a few moments of actual outward expression. But the terror she sells in her face and body language is quite something once she enters the liminal space. Chiwetel Ejiofor is much more of a live wire in the film, and he gets to show off a range of emotions. There is a curiosity in Ejiofor’s mania once he finds the liminal space. The film also takes his path to some dark spaces and Ejiofor matches that type of darkness in some interesting ways (highlighted by one scene for sure). Mark Duplass is in the film for all like four minutes, but he does bring that interesting Duplass energy. Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell have a limited presence in the film, but they are solid at least. One interesting and unique presence is basketball player Robert Bobroczkyi whose massive height and size brings some true terror to the experience. 

Is Backrooms the next great horror film of 2026? A lot of credit needs to go to Parsons for his vision and this incredible concept. From a horror standpoint, Backrooms more than delivers. But there is just something lacking outside of that liminal space. There is too much distance between the audience and the characters in the film that just makes it hard to connect. Some pieces are certainly there and some of them fit in nicely. A game cast and impressive filmmaking truly make this a worthwhile experience.