Clark: “Imagine describing a dog to someone who’s never seen one before and then asking them to draw it. It will look similar, but the devil is in the details. . .”
While viewing today’s movie, a quote revolving around The Doors and their band name popped into my head, “There are things you know about and things you don’t, the known and the unknown, and in between are the doors – that’s us”. With links to Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perceptions, and before that the even more apropos William Blake’s 18th century poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, one line from it reads, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.” It only seems fitting that this rather abstract lineage which discusses both reality and exploring expanded consciousness somehow links to the sci-fi psychological horror film Backrooms (2026), co-written and directed by 20 year old Kane Parsons.
In some ways a bit like a found footage film, this movie set in 1990 follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor – Love Actually; Children of Men; The Martian), a man who is very much struggling in life. With his wife having left him (he’s been kicked out of his home), and forced to abandon his dream job as an architect to run a cheap pirate themed discount furniture store that is floundering under his ownership – it doesn’t help that despite hiring an electrician, the lights within the giant store continuously flicker.
Disgruntled, frustrated, angry, and utterly alone, he frequently sees his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), though no breakthrough seems to be coming anytime soon. Outside of that, he sees his two employees, couple Bobby (Finn Bennett) and Kat (Lukita Maxwell), and that is it.
It is under this stressed situation that Clark discovers the most bizarre extra square footage hidden behind what seems to be an ordinary wall. Shrugged off by his therapist when trying to explain the bizarre place, he continues to explore this Alice in Wonderland-like liminal space, as it seems to go on in infinite directions and offers a plethora of findings – from eccentric architecture, deformed furniture, plenty of technology, a ‘STOP’ sign spelled backwards, a swimming pool, a talking cardboard cutout, a video camera that is seemingly recording, and so much more.
Becoming more and more entwined with the otherworldly locale that looks like it was built by countless architects on bad drugs (Clark even starts developing a map and blueprints for the locale), what will he find in these endlessly eccentric backrooms? Could he rope his employees into helping him with the extensive exploration? Might he even eventually convince his therapist that the place actually exists?
Without giving too much away, it seems fitting that at one point 1984’s The NeverEnding Story is seen playing on a television, as it very much seems like this world could go on forever. Delving into the psychology of the mind, the relationship between a therapist (who has her own issues from the past) and her patient, and so much more, like the quote that opens this piece, these backrooms seem like a dog drawn by someone who has never seen one and only ever heard of it – as everything is at least slightly askew. One thing is for sure, if fluorescent lights, yellow walls, empty or overcrowded spaces, sloppy architecture, or disorienting infinite spaces freak you out, this might not be for you.
Analyzing traumatic memories (and how they perhaps get flawed or warped over time), the loops we develop to protect ourselves from hurt, the way we’re wired, and how emotions impact our psyches over time, Backrooms is a unique exploration from a 20 year old pushing the boundaries of sci-fi horror. Starting as an Internet Creepypasta back in 2022 (basically a horror legend, image, or video that has been copy and pasted around the Internet), it became so popular, studios soon came calling and here we are. . . but Parsons also says he’s going to continue the web series version as well. It is also worth noting that Mark Duplass (Safety Not Guaranteed; Bombshell) has a small role as someone named Phil. Lastly the electronic synth score (by Parsons and Edo Van Breeman) and sound design also deserves to be highlighted – as it further adds an alarming atmosphere to the mood of the picture. So, break on through to the other side with this outlandish journey, just don’t forget to makes copies of your directions so you don’t get lost.