A24 Unleash First Teaser Trailer for Backrooms
A24 has released the very first teaser trailer for Backrooms, the upcoming horror film that expands Kane Parsons’ hugely viral internet horror universe onto the big screen. The science fiction horror project is set to arrive in theaters on May 29 and is already shaping up to be one of the most unusual studio horror releases in recent years.
The teaser itself is deliberately minimal, eerie, and drenched in liminal dread, echoing the tone that made the original Backrooms videos such a phenomenon online. In the unsettling footage, a voice quietly explains, “I found something… I found a place. It’s massive in there. It just goes on and on and on. All these rooms.” The dialogue reinforces the core concept of an endless, shifting space that appears to remember environments, creating a creeping sense of existential horror rather than relying on traditional jump scares.
The film’s official premise begins with a strange doorway appearing in the basement of a furniture showroom, a grounded and mundane entry point that fits perfectly with the Backrooms mythology. Instead of a haunted house or cursed object, the horror stems from accidentally stepping into a seemingly infinite extradimensional maze of rooms, corridors, and forgotten spaces.
What makes this adaptation particularly notable is its origin. The Backrooms concept first gained traction online in 2019 as part of internet horror culture, centred around the idea of “no-clipping” out of reality and ending up trapped in an endless labyrinth of fluorescent-lit rooms. The imagery of empty office spaces, buzzing lights, and oppressive silence quickly became synonymous with the liminal space aesthetic.
Kane Parsons, known online as Kane Pixels, elevated the concept dramatically with his Backrooms short films on YouTube. His initial Backrooms short, released in 2022, became a viral sensation due to its convincing found footage style, realistic VFX work, and slow-building dread. The short presented the Backrooms not as a simple creepy setting, but as a vast, unknowable environment that could distort physics, space, and time. Rather than relying on traditional exposition, Parsons used analog-style camera footage, environmental storytelling, and subtle sound design to create a sense of authenticity that resonated strongly with horror audiences.
The success of that original short and the subsequent series, which collectively amassed tens of millions of views online, caught the attention of the film industry and quickly positioned Parsons as one of the most exciting young voices in modern horror. Remarkably, A24’s own press materials have highlighted that Parsons was still a teenager when the series exploded in popularity, with the videos gaining close to one hundred million views and becoming a defining piece of internet-era horror storytelling.
Now, that viral universe is being translated into a feature film with a significantly expanded scale. The cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Avan Jogia, a strong ensemble that suggests the film will lean into character-driven tension alongside its conceptual horror. Ejiofor brings dramatic gravitas following acclaimed performances across both mainstream and genre projects, while Reinsve’s presence adds an intriguing edge given her critically praised work in recent international cinema. Mark Duplass, meanwhile, has a long association with grounded, unsettling storytelling, making him a fitting addition to a project built on psychological unease rather than conventional monster horror.
Behind the scenes, the film is produced by James Wan and Michael Clear for Atomic Monster, alongside A24, Chernin Entertainment, and 21 Laps Entertainment, signalling a major collaborative effort to bring the liminal horror concept to a wider theatrical audience. Wan’s involvement is particularly fitting given his history with atmospheric and concept-driven horror, while A24’s backing suggests the film will maintain the unsettling, art-forward tone that fans of the original shorts expect.
Importantly, the teaser does not overexplain the mythology, which is arguably the smartest possible move. One of the key reasons the initial Backrooms short worked so effectively was its refusal to spoon-feed answers. Viewers were simply dropped into an impossible environment with no clear rules, no easy escape, and only fragments of context. That sense of ambiguity became central to the horror, and the teaser trailer appears committed to preserving that approach.
Visually, the footage mirrors the analog horror aesthetic that defined Parsons’ original work, with sterile lighting, empty spaces, and a persistent sense that something is deeply wrong even when nothing is immediately visible. It is a stark contrast to more conventional studio horror marketing, which often relies on rapid cuts and loud set pieces. Instead, the Backrooms teaser builds tension through atmosphere, scale, and the terrifying idea of endless isolation.
With the original YouTube shorts proving that liminal horror can captivate massive audiences without traditional narrative structure, the transition to a feature-length film is a fascinating evolution. The teaser suggests that the film will not abandon its experimental roots, but rather expand them into a larger cinematic experience while maintaining the unsettling realism that made the Backrooms series so widely discussed online.
If the teaser is anything to go by, A24 is not simply adapting a viral concept. It is attempting to preserve the eerie authenticity of Kane Parsons’ original vision while amplifying the scale, scope, and psychological horror of a place that quite literally never ends. And if that endless maze translates as effectively to the big screen as it did in the original short, audiences may soon discover that getting lost in the Backrooms is far more terrifying in a cinema than it ever was on a computer screen.
