Backrooms

"See how far it goes."

2026 1h 51m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.8

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 3,662●76Metacritic★6.8IMDB · 179,011

HorrorMysteryScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.

“See how far it goes.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Chiwetel Ejiofor
Clark
Renate Reinsve
Mary
Finn Bennett
Bobby
Lukita Maxwell
Kat
Mark Duplass
Phil
Avan Jogia
Naren Warne
Robert Bobroczkyi
Pirate Clark
Ember Ambrose
Young Mary

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Kane Parsons
Writers: Will Soodik
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America, Canada

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $401M — a 40.1× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released this year — you're seeing it while it's still in the cultural conversation.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Canada.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

209+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Kane Parsons, shot by Jeremy Cox. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Edo van Breemen. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Greg Ng shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve and Finn Bennett carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kane Parsons directs. Jeremy Cox behind the camera. Edo van Breemen scores. Greg Ng cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America, Canada. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $401M — a 40.1× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
2Released this year — you're seeing it while it's still in the cultural conversation.
3International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Canada.
4209+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Kane Parsons, shot by Jeremy Cox. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Edo van Breemen. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Greg Ng shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve and Finn Bennett carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "See how far it goes.".
10IMDB entry: tt26657236 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 20 themes, including "california", "monster", "therapist", "surrealism".
12Released under 34 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Jeremy Cox
Original score: Edo van Breemen
Editing: Greg Ng
Production design: Danny Vermette
Costume design: Mica Kayde
Makeup / hair: Kristin Chaar
VFX supervisor: Edward J. Douglas
Sound: Eugenio Battaglia
Stunt coordinator: Trevor Addie
Runtime: 111 min · 1h 51m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $10,000,000
Box office: $400,685,080
Return: 4007% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Backrooms (2026)
Metacritic: 76/100
IMDB rating: 6.8/10 · 179,011 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

14 nominations total

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

James Berry2026-05-30
Given how many endless, empty geometric hallways our main character had to wander through, having Justin Long’s character from Barbarian pop up with a tape measure to calculate the square footage would have genuinely made this a 5-star masterpiece. Backrooms completely nails the atmosphere in the first half. The grainy, handheld "home video" style shots build an insane amount of tension, and making the entire environment harsh and well-lit instead of hiding in the dark is a brilliant way to capture that pure, unsettling liminal space dread. The sound design is heavy and unrelenting, but the editing kills the momentum in the second half. The audio masterfully amps up your anxiety to a 10, but the actual visual reveals completely flatten out and fail to deliver on the build-up. Still, it's a solid watch on a big screen.
Brent Marchant2026-05-31
★ 4/10
Anointing a young, first-time big screen director as the new filmmaking messiah of his or her particular genre is a risky undertaking, to be sure. Does the fledgling auteur have what it takes to live up to that auspicious title? Is this an ordination that’s truly warranted? It’s serious business, both for box office tallies and artistically speaking. But does the heir apparent truly possess the skills, talent and vision to achieve success on both fronts? That’s something worth considering in light of the debut feature from writer-director Kane Parsons, the force behind this aspiring smart horror release, which is quickly being praised to the hilt and drawing huge numbers in ticket sales. However, I believe that the coronation of this new voice in the genre is far from deserved and entirely premature. While it’s true that Parsons has a keen eye for the aesthetic, that’s only half the challenge when making a movie in virtually any genre. The other part – being an effective storyteller – needs work (and a lot of it). Based on a YouTube adaptation of his immensely popular internet TV series The Backrooms, the film follows a troubled (and largely unsuccessful) seller of cheap furniture, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who’s experiencing difficulties in his personal life and professional calling. His failed marriage and inability to make use of his training as an architect have led him to seek counseling from a high-profile therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve). His progress takes a drastic turn, though, when he finds a maze of what appears to be a collection of office suites adjacent to his store’s basement – a discovery he makes by somehow walking through one of its walls. The spaces are seemingly devoid of people but haphazardly strewn with various items from his life, including his past. Has he stepped into a corporeal manifestation of his psyche? An alternate reality? Or something else entirely? That’s what he hopes to learn with the unexpected help of his skeptical shrink. And what will that be? The film’s opening half capably sets the scene, creating a legitimately sinister sense of creepiness. However, about midway into the picture, it becomes repetitive and directionless, as if it’s searching for what to do next. That’s where this offering goes off the rails, turning inexplicable, underdeveloped and outright goofy at times. The alleged scariness of this would-be psychological thriller vanishes, turning tedious, silly and more laughable than frightening. And a last-ditch effort to take the narrative in a redemptive direction involving a mysterious scientific research organization only muddies the waters further, doing little to salvage what has already fallen apart. Many have likened this release to a video game with a protagonist trying to solve the puzzle of the story. Others have said that it’s full of nuanced references to the YouTube series, although that would require an intimate knowledge of the source material to fully appreciate it. And others still have postulated a host of other interpretations given the inherently vague nature of the finished product. For my money, even though it starts out well, it turns into an incoherent cinematic mess that fails to hold attention and left me sighing a big “So what?” What became most apparent to me while sitting through this is just how difficult it is to create an engaging smart horror film, a genre I enjoy immensely but has been plagued by more failures than successes, with this one being yet another entry on that list of disappointments. Indeed, don’t be too quick to reach for that crown just yet. If the filmmaker hopes to assume that title, he’s still got his work cut out for him, beginning with an urgent need to get out of his own “Backrooms.”
jamesstocks142026-05-31
★ 8/10
New unofficial Christmas movie unlocked. Far more complex than I thought it was going to be, especially considering it was a combination of trauma based creatures and a touch of sci-fi uncertainty. Overall a good watch, and incredibly impressive from such a young creative mind.