Reading time 2 minutes
An impossible place. Room after room, corridor after corridor, with no ending in sight. It shouldn’t exist. Can’t exist. How did you get in? How can you get out? Why is it here, and what does it all mean?
Those are just some of the thoughts and questions you have after watching the first teaser for Backrooms, a new film directed by Kane Parsons. Parsons rose to fame when his short film series, also called Backrooms, got tens of millions of views on YouTube, following a camera person in a bright, terrifying, impossibly infinite place.
Now that’s becoming a feature with a cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, and Mark Duplass, none of whom appear in this creepy first look.
Having not followed the wild success of Backrooms too closely, our first thoughts with this teaser, as well as the dynamite short it’s based on, turned to Mark Z. Danielewski’s hugely ambitious 2000 book, House of Leaves. In that book, which is way more complicated than this, a man discovers a hallway in his house that defies logic. It shouldn’t be there. But it is, so he hires a famous explorer to go in with him, and together, they document what they soon realize is a terrifying, infinite space that can’t be explained. Again, there’s much more to the story, but that’s the core.
Backrooms certainly has some of that DNA in it, and with this feature, Parsons looks to expand on the idea in some way. For example, the entrance to the space in the short is on a street. In the film, it’s below a furniture store. How much will the film explain the unexplainable? Will it solve the mystery? And will those insanely creepy shadow creatures show up? We have to imagine the answer to that last question is certainly “yes.”
A24 will release Backrooms on May 29, in the heart of the summer movie season. We can’t wait to see how it all comes together. Here’s the original short.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Explore more on these topics
Share this story
Subscribe and interact with our community, get up to date with our customised Newsletters and much more.
Even when your power goes down, your Wi-Fi won't.
The future of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' belongs to television, Glen Powell, and an eventual movie.
That's the plot of 'undertone,' a new film from A24, which opens on Friday, March 13.
Yeoh hopes 'Ne Zha II' will remind audiences nationwide that Chinese animation has long been a force of beauty, power, and imagination.
Beijing Enlight Media's animated sequel is a mythological epic that puts others to shame.
Michelle Yeoh stars in the English-language version of the animated Chinese hit, which re-releases in theaters and IMAX on August 22.
©2026 GIZMODO USA LLC.
All rights reserved.
Source: Gizmodo