A24's Backrooms Adaptation Brings YouTuber Kane Parsons' Liminal Space Horror to Cinemas

A24 has released Backrooms, a feature-length horror film adapted from YouTuber Kane Parsons' viral series of the same name. The film stars British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and marks Parsons, now 20 years old, as A24's youngest ever director. The concept originated from a 2019 4chan post about disturbing abandoned spaces that has since accumulated over 200 million YouTube views.

From Internet Concept to Hollywood

The Backrooms concept emerged in 2019 when anonymous users on the message board 4chan were asked to share disquieting images that felt "off." One submission featured an abandoned office space with mustard-yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lighting, accompanied by a description of being trapped in an endless maze of empty rooms. The post warned of creatures lurking in the darkness, capturing an unsettling aesthetic that would resonate across the internet.

Parsons, then 16 years old, transformed this concept into a YouTube mini-series using the free 3D software Blender and Adobe After Effects. His series grew into a phenomenon, amassing more than 200 million views and establishing the visual language that would define the property. The success caught the attention of A24, the studio behind Oscar-nominated films like The Substance, leading to the development of a feature-length adaptation.

Liminal Spaces and Architectural Dread

The film centres on Clark, a furniture store owner portrayed by Ejiofor, who discovers a portal to these mysterious spaces in his basement. He struggles to explain his discovery to his therapist, Dr Mary Kline, played by Renate Reinsve. The narrative explores what architects and philosophers call "liminal spaces"—places that exist between other locations, neither fully defined by history nor identity. These abandoned malls, empty offices, and forgotten corridors represent the leftover spaces of modernism, devoid of human traces.

Parsons has described the project as grounded in contemporary anxieties about urban decay and industrial monoculture. The film retains the visual framework and aesthetic of his YouTube series, emphasizing the horror found not in monsters or gore, but in the psychological dread of isolation within these featureless environments. Drop ceilings, fluorescent hums, and carpet stains become instruments of unease rather than external threats.