Backrooms is an upcoming science fiction horror film being released by A24. It is based on the online urban legend, which was sparked by a 2019 4chan thread with a photograph of a large, carpeted room.
As one Reddit user explained, it’s “pretty much a creepypasta, but evokes feelings a lot of people have had. Imagine being a little kid getting lost in your dad's office building.”
Another said that the Backrooms “describe a surreal and unsettling alternate reality consisting of a seemingly infinite number of interconnected, claustrophobic rooms. The rooms are described as being nondescript, with yellow, faded wallpaper, old fluorescent lights, and a constant, ominous humming sound.”
That urban legend inspired Kane Parsons to create his short film, The Backrooms (Found Footage), which he uploaded to YouTube in 2022. The video currently has 73 million views. Since it did so well, it led Parsons to create an entire series of videos based around the backrooms.
Parsons is directing the upcoming A24 film with Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor starring. The film will also include Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Avan Jogia. Will Soodik, who worked on Westworld and Homeland, wrote the screenplay.
“Look I know how this sounds, but you've got to understand, it's massive in there," you can hear in the trailer. “I’ve been in here every night since I found the place and I still barely scratched the surface.”
This isn’t the only piece of media that has been inspired by the infamous backrooms. A video game called Escape the Backrooms was released in 2025 after an early access version was put out in 2022. In the game, players are placed in a fictional liminal space location where they are meant to explore to find the exits. Entities appear throughout the game, which can be fought off or avoided.
Backrooms will be released in theaters on May 29.
