- Directed and Co-Scored by Kane Parsons (Feature Directorial Debut)
- May 7, 2026 (Aero Theatre) / May 29, 2026 (US)
- Based on Backrooms by Kane Parsons
A furniture store owner and his therapist discover a dimension of seemingly endless liminal spaces entered through the store’s basement.
After all the hype, Backrooms finally came to streaming and I decided to give it a look. It is certainly a unique film, but the seeming plethora of liminal space AI generated videos out there makes this not nearly as original as others have claimed. That and the entry point into the other world vaguely reminded me of The Twilight Zone episode Little Girl Lost.
This is not entirely a found footage film. It tries to mix genres by switching between video with the operator narrating and a more traditional presentation. This occurs with great frequency in the opening and closing (post-credits scene included) but is absent during the middle of the film. It adds nothing other than irritation because you are trying to follow events while looking at very shaky footage.
The movie packs in plenty of weird and almost hints at answers but doesn’t give anything strong or concrete. You’ll learn how these backrooms were discovered but what their purpose is and how they came to be never gets revealed and that is mostly okay. Not every question needs an answer.
Unlike others I don’t think there’s much of a story in Backrooms nor is there much of a conclusion. The rooms are constructed like half remembered places. Characters describe it repeatedly as if you described a dog to someone who had never seen a dog then asked them to draw a dog they would get some things right but not everything right. It’s a pretty good analogy to these rooms.
And that’s pretty much all Kane Parsons does. He shows darker versions of poorly imagined things. We get first Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a furniture store owner and failed architect, along with his two inconsequential employees followed by Clark’s therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) exploring snippets of Clark’s store. One would think once Clark is out of the story these rooms would switch to the mind of Mary but it sticks largely with the theme of the store with an interlude once to Clark’s house and a brief moment of a variation on an undefined facility Mary finds herself in. It implies it feeds off memories so why is it the store we almost entirely see? Does this place/reality just really likes Clark’s store?
Then there is the nefarious unnamed company that shows up in the final act. They once made MRI machines but somehow opened a doorway into this other place and have since abandoned MRI machines. How do they make money then? I might’ve felt better if they had completely eliminated that part and just kept the gentleman who brought them up a mysterious questioner. Nefarious government organization may be cliché but leaves fewer questions than an MRI company. What were they doing that did any of this?!
Clark is the main character at the start then it becomes Mary after Clark is killed. Clark’s story was ¾ through when we first meet him. He is angry and bitter over all his life is not and what he has given up to support his now estranged wife. His death is a given but if he were the main character, it would have come later with the reveals of the depth of his issues coming later. Mary takes his place when she goes looking for him and goes into the unlocked store. His two employees? Not important enough to even mention their names.
That’s not to say any of these were actual characters or they receive much of an arc if any. We begin and end having very little sense about them. We can surmise the psychologist may not even really like being a psychologist or hearing about people’s problems. Her handling of Clark leaves me with questions.
For a bit you’re getting the feeling this is going to be strangeness in some imposter world then it leans into being possibly a look inside the mind of Clark and then it’s just Mary getting terrorized. What’s the link? What’s the connection to everything? None that I can see or create head cannon around.
I enjoyed what I watched. I think did think it was well-acted and it held my attention. I was just left with some questions that I couldn’t create answers to on my own. Plus, it shifted quickly from who appeared to be the central figure to a new central figure. They both have their baggage, but who is the important person to the movie? The movie won’t tell you.
Backrooms is entertaining, but unfocused. It never decided what mattered to it or decided to hint at possible explanations. Good but not as good as it could be.
