#315: The Backrooms

Release Date: May 29th, 2026

Format: DCP (Cinemark at The Pike Outlets in Long Beach, CA)

Written by: Will Soodik

Directed by: Kane Parsons

3 Stars

Does A24’s Backrooms represent a new path forward for young filmmakers? 

Directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, a kid who grew up on video games (both playing and modulating them; his father was a video game developer in the Bay Area) and “creepypasta,” his feature film debut goes down like a post-modern smoothie of Minecraft, Being John Malkovich, and Jungian Psych 101. 

I’m positive that Parsons is an expert on the Minecraft part - you can see it in his massive, geometric set designs - but the rest is left to first-time feature film screenwriter Will Soodik. Soodik is the one entrusted with turning Parsons’ creepypasta into a narrative.

And what is Parsons’ creepypasta, exactly? Basically, a generic yellowish-beige office space that expands endlessly, becoming increasingly more erratic and unusual in its dimensions the further you traverse into its interior.

It’s a fun visual concept, sure, but what’s the story?            

Soodik provides us with a protagonist, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an alcoholic that runs a crummy furniture store in the early 1990s. Clark’s wife has left him, and he sees therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) to help deal with the emotional fallout. In addition to his troubled personal life, business stinks for Clark, who has resorted to sleeping in his furniture store to help keep his finances afloat. 

One night, he discovers a portal in his store that takes him to the titular “backrooms.” It’s haunting and exciting, and exploring it gives him purpose just when his life could really use some. He can’t wait to tell Dr. Kline about it, too, who receives the news alarmingly. Has her patient suffered an irreparable mental breakdown? Does he need in-patient treatment?

When Clark goes missing for weeks, Dr. Kline decides to visit the furniture store, and she too discovers the portal. She finds Clark back there, in full-blown Colonel Kurtz-mode, now a full-time denizen of the backrooms and a proponent of its stark beauty and truth. 

We learn, too, that Dr. Kline has her own personal demons. It seems that the backrooms are more enchanting to those who are trying to compartmentalize and manage mental illness. For Clark it is his substance abuse and depression; for Dr. Kline, possibly childhood trauma and survivor’s guilt. 

Are the backrooms purely metaphorical? No, I don’t think so. Soodik presents us with an explanation that it’s a real physical space, discovered and researched by medical scientists who want to learn its deeper meaning. An older and wiser filmmaker might have insights into what that meaning could be, but I’m afraid the young Parsons is more just inspired to create creepy sets. 

Speaking of which, his set designs are incredible. A million miles of carpet and dry-wall and fluorescent lighting lend The Backrooms an authentic and confident mise-en-scène. It’s a visually impressive film, and I think it will ultimately serve as the film’s legacy as the years pass on.

As for the story and themes, I’m afraid The Backrooms creepypasta is more of an appetizer than an entree.