Review #372: Backrooms (2026)

2026 Supplemental Review #1 - Backrooms (2026)

[Disclaimer: This movie is still brand-new (as of this writing it came out less than a week ago) so I will do my best not to spoil anything. Enjoy!]

First thing I should mention is that I only found out today (after viewing the film) that this movie is apparently a direct follow-up to a series of short horror films on YouTube; despite not know this I would still consider myself a self-professed "Backrooms Enthusiast".

I have always been a fan of the "Backrooms" meme, as well as the associated boom of liminal-space-based media that has sprung up around it. It's hard to describe (something this movie touches on many times), but the feeling I get when seeing some sort of impossible physical space, or a room that dips into the uncanny valley of almost realistic, or an image that should evoke feelings of coziness or comfort but I understand that it's a coziness I've never actually seen myself, that feeling is a feeling that attracts me like a moth to a Backrooms-scented candle. I'm such a fan of this kind of media that over the last few years I've run two different tabletop RPG sessions directly inspired by the Backrooms (despite tabletop RPGs being a terrible medium for this kind of horror); one of them was released on my podcast's Patreon in October 2021, and the other was recorded a few months ago but still needs to be edited.

I say this all to express how apprehensive I was when this movie was announced, because while I loved the idea of this film, I knew the odds of a studio (even A24) nailing it were pretty low. Among other things, "The Backrooms" isn't really a story as much as it is a setting FOR stories, so even if they made it look and feel like I expected, what if the story they wrote missed the mark? (I'm reminded of Five Nights at Freddy's, where the setting and vibe is pretty accurate, but the story has almost nothing to do with the game series.) But for anyone who's resisted the urge to just scroll down to the bottom to see my score, let me tell you now: I LOVED this film.

It's not perfect, by any means. But they NAILED the look of the Backrooms. The characters are relatively simple, but realistic, and they mesh pretty well with the exploration of this phenomenon. (Again, not perfectly, but pretty well.) Every frame of footage while the characters were in the Backrooms set my mind ablaze, as I wished I could be the one exploring this bizarre labyrinth. In general I'm not a fan of how much internet communities have tried to codify and explain the Backrooms- there's at least one wiki with fan-numbered "levels" of the Backrooms and details about who or what can be found there and how to enter or escape, which is rather cringeworthy as someone on the outside looking in- but the movie doesn't dip into any of that to my knowledge, mostly coming up with its own simple mythos and lore and locales with a few passing easter eggs referencing certain well-known photos and stories on the internet. They definitely took some of the story and lore in directions I wasn't expecting and didn't really ask for, but the end result is a pretty good story, and it kept me interested from beginning to end with some fun and terrifying surprises here and there.

One criticism I will mention that significantly impacted the experience for me though, has to do with the found-footage segments. There are two segments of the film that are (made to look like they were) filmed using a handheld camcorder, to play into the lo-fi analog horror style that was used in the short films that precede this. Neither of the segments is bad by any means (both were incredibly creepy and did a great job of showing off some of the weirder elements of the Backrooms, while keeping things moving quickly enough to keep you from dwelling on any of them too long) but both segments go on for like... 50% longer than I needed them to. Any sort of shaky-cam found-footage tends to give me and my wife motion sickness, which can be a real problem, but also, so much of this movie's appeal for me is the visuals, so long sections where it's difficult to see and follow what's being shown can diminish the experience.

This movie looks great, the actors do a fantastic job, the performances are all realistic and believable, and it really sets up a great vibe and I would love to see more!

Overall Rating: 9/10 Living Rooms, Bedrooms, Dinettes

A Taste of Danger: I don't go to the movie theater often (instead watching most movies in the home theater in my basement), but when I do, one of my guilty pleasures is sneaking food into the theater- usually just a couple cans of soda, maybe a candy bar or something. It's easy, and it hurts nobody, but it's still "against the rules" so it carries with it a tinge of danger. Well, this time we didn't sneak anything in, we were just there to watch the movie. But to my surprise (as we heard crinkling throughout the film, and I saw as we were passing them at the end) the couple a few seats down from us not only snuck in some cans of soda, but an entire bag of groceries. I need to step up my game!