The Backrooms Trailer Opens the Door to a Nightmare You Can’t Escape
The full trailer for The Backrooms has arrived, and it looks like A24 are about to turn one of the internet’s creepiest rabbit holes into a full-blown cinematic nightmare. If you have ever stared at a badly lit office corridor and thought, “This feels wrong,” congratulations, this film is about to ruin your life.
The feature marks the directorial debut of Kane Parsons, the YouTube creator who helped turn the Backrooms concept into a viral horror phenomenon back in 2022. His original videos, built around the idea of endless, empty, liminal spaces, have racked up over 190 million views and counting. Not bad for something that essentially asks, “What if beige walls were evil?”
From Internet Nightmare to Big Screen Horror
For those somehow unfamiliar, the Backrooms began as a creepypasta concept describing an infinite maze of monotonous, yellow-tinted rooms. Think office space, but stretched into eternity, with the added bonus that something might be lurking just out of sight. It is a simple idea, but like all great horror concepts, it taps into something deeply uncomfortable. Familiar spaces made wrong.
Parsons’ short films took that idea and elevated it with found footage style filmmaking, analogue aesthetics, and an almost suffocating sense of scale. The result was something that felt oddly real, as if someone had genuinely fallen through reality and was now documenting their slow descent into madness.
The feature film looks to preserve that DNA. The trailer confirms that The Backrooms will incorporate VHS-style footage into its narrative, blending traditional filmmaking with the lo-fi terror that made the original videos so effective.
A Cast Stepping Into the Unknown
Leading the film are Academy Award nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, two performers not exactly known for screaming at fluorescent lighting… until now. Ejiofor has built a career across everything from 12 Years a Slave to blockbuster fare like Doctor Strange, while Reinsve gained international recognition for The Worst Person in the World. Seeing them dropped into something this abstract and unsettling is a fascinating shift.
They are joined by a strong supporting cast including Mark Duplass, who horror fans will recognise from Creep, a film that also thrives on discomfort and unpredictability. Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Avan Jogia round out the ensemble, bringing a mix of television and genre experience into what looks like a very unusual horror project.
The screenplay comes from Will Soodik, with the story reportedly kicking off when a strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom. Which is already a red flag. If a mysterious doorway appears anywhere, the correct response is to leave immediately. Do not investigate. Do not bring a torch. Do not say “this will be quick.” Horror has taught us nothing.
A24, Atomic Monster and a Very Uncomfortable Space
Behind the scenes, the film has an impressive production line-up. A24 is producing alongside Chernin Entertainment, 21 Laps Entertainment, Atomic Monster, and Phobos. That combination suggests a balance between indie horror sensibilities and large-scale production, which feels exactly right for something like The Backrooms.
There is also a strong creative lineage here. Atomic Monster, founded by James Wan, has been behind some of the most successful modern horror films, while A24 has built a reputation for elevated, often deeply unsettling genre work. Put those together with Parsons’ unique visual style, and you have something that could genuinely stand apart from typical studio horror.
What makes The Backrooms concept so effective is how little it actually shows. There are no elaborate monsters front and centre, no clear rules, no obvious escape. Just space. Endless, repetitive, suffocating space. It is horror built on atmosphere, not explanation.
The trailer leans heavily into that. Long corridors, flickering lights, distorted audio, and that constant feeling that something is just out of frame. It is the kind of horror that gets under your skin rather than jumping out at you. The kind that makes you check the corner of your room at 3am for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
And crucially, it feels like Parsons has not abandoned what made the original shorts work. If anything, the larger budget seems to have amplified it rather than diluted it.
Release Date for The Backrooms
The Backrooms is set to hit cinemas on May 29 via A24, with tickets already on sale. Whether it becomes the next breakout horror hit or simply a fascinating experiment, one thing is certain.
You are never going to look at a boring office hallway the same way again. And if a random doorway appears in your house tonight, just ignore it. Trust me.
