June 16, 2026, 2:33 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
Yellow rooms, everywhere large, yellow rooms and winding, long yellow corridors. The monotony and the absence of any windows are exhausting, and the “furnishings,” if you can call them that, are disturbing due to their nonconformist depiction of apparent irrationality in an increasingly surreal manner. As a viewer, you gradually lose your mind like the protagonists on screen, and an escape seems out of reach from this Ikea from hell. Welcome to the “Backrooms.”
This is what “Backrooms” is about
Sometime in the 1990s: Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the newly divorced owner of an unsuccessful furniture store, discovers a hidden area in the store’s basement one evening. It extends over an unknown size and consists of nothing but yellow rooms. His initial curiosity quickly turns into an obsession, and Clark wants to explore as much of these mysterious backrooms as possible. His therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) initially doesn’t believe him. But even she can’t resist the allure of the “Backrooms” …
YouTube phenomenon becomes a feature film
With “Backrooms,” the 20-year-old Kane Parsons makes his directorial debut. He adapted his own YouTube series of short films, which picked up on the original “Backrooms” internet phenomenon. This began in 2019 on the internet platform 4chan with a single photo of a yellow room.
It was accompanied by the idea that one could leave reality and enter a parallel world of these very rooms. Since then, fans have been creating new eerie stories with new levels and other creepy things. Now the rooms have also made it to the big screen.
“Backrooms” sets a new record
And with massive success: “Backrooms” has become the most successful film of the indie studio A24 to date. With an estimated budget of only ten million dollars, the current worldwide earnings amount to nearly 250 million dollars–and rising, considering further theatrical releases such as in Germany.
Critics and fans alike agree, as a look at relevant sites shows. According to Metacritic, all considered professional film reviews come together to a very good 77 out of 100 points. On Rotten Tomatoes, even 88 percent of all submitted reviews are positive, while fans are 74 percent pleased.
Deep, abstract spaces
And rightly so. With the movie ticket, you book a thrilling descent into a mind-bending, alternative reality where danger always lurks in the background but remains largely intangible. Especially when Clark embarks on his first exploration of the rooms, the mystery creates a chilling fascination–what kind of place is this?
In these moments, “Backrooms” scores with a pleasantly slow-paced narrative that intensifies the atmosphere. Clark cautiously trudges through the rooms, and as a viewer, you know just as little as he does. The cinematography by Jeremy Cox makes an enormously important contribution here, capturing the locations skillfully in slow pans and wide angles and shots to fully bring out their depth and abstraction.
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“Blair Witch Project” says hello
The formal discipline and artistry stand in stark contrast to two central sequences, where a completely different caliber of staging is employed. In “Backrooms,” the found-footage horror is celebrated in the best “Blair Witch Project” style. Then it’s: authentically shaky camera in poor resolution meets frantic action from a subjective perspective.
The opening sequence immediately captivates in this way and delivers a jolt to your nerves. But this is later surpassed, and then the tension becomes almost unbearable. The cinematic principle is well-dosed and maximally exploited in its effectiveness.
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Strongly cast stars
The concept of the “Backrooms” is intriguing enough to captivate even those who have had nothing to do with the internet phenomenon so far. But Parsons can count himself lucky that two Oscar-nominated stars have delivered strong performances on top of that.
First and foremost, Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”) plays Clark’s tormented mental descent into madness with brilliance, delivering the film’s central performance. But Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) is in no way inferior. She provides a much-needed emotional contrast and anchor for the audience.
Minor renovations for the ending
“Backrooms” is, of course, not perfect. Fans of obvious jump scares or relentless gore should look elsewhere, while the more discerning audience is catered to. There are minor drawbacks for the ending, which delves a bit too much into the mystery for its own good.
There are also eye-rolling fans who find the psychological underpinning of the plot, and this interpretation of the “Backrooms” in particular, too clichéd. Of course, in the end, it’s also a matter of interpretation, and it’s up to each individual how they understand the yellow rooms.
Nevertheless, what remains is an imaginative, exciting horror contribution and one of the biggest surprise successes of 2026. And anyone now looking for an apartment should better steer clear of such listings.