Backrooms Review: A Half-Baked Bore

By Joseph Giganti

June 8, 2026

‘The Backrooms,’ directed by 20 year old Kane Parsons, has a lot on its mind. Specifically, more than anything, about the mind itself. Bathing its audiences with monologues ripped straight out of psychology books, the film realizes the goldmine of an allegory the Backrooms can be.

And that’s far and away the best part. Because it’s there that film actually gets interesting. The rest, unfortunately, is a slog.

Humming to the tune of 154 million dollars worldwide and counting, Kane Parson’s ‘The Backrooms’ is on its way to becoming A24’s most successful film to date. However, the film doesn’t quite earn that moniker. Half-baked and uneven, there are times the film sings and times it sinks, becoming as boring as the title location may seem upon first visit.

The film follows Clark (played superbly by Chiwetel Ejiofor), as he seeks to… what does he seek? Well, he runs a furniture store. It doesn’t seem that successful; the only proof of any customers comes from the “rip-off” accusation spray painted to his window. He seeks success… to a point. Really, we learn, is that he wishes to be an architect, or believes himself to be despite not having taken any steps towards that dream.

Or has he? The film never makes it clear. Clark, in a word, is pathetic. We learn that Clark has been kicked out of his house because of his anger issues and drinking habits, something he refuses to take blame for. Even when “role-playing” the night he was cast away with Mary, his therapist and our secondary protagonist, he leaves out any details that might be defamatory until confronted about them.

But we feel for the guy. Life’s delt him a bad hand of cards. Mary asks him if he’s willing to do the work, to which he responds, “I’m here, aren’t I?” However, it doesn’t seem like Clark wants to change. The most we see him pursuing his passions is doodling cityscapes.

This is the best character work in the film. Ascribing Clark the subconscious need to change his ways, and then having the Backrooms become the metaphysical representation of said subconscious, is a wonderful post-modern play by Parsons. Clark feels trapped in his life and in his actions, and the claustrophobic and never-ending labyrinth of carpet-stained, fluorescent lit rooms is a truly miracle of production design that deserves to be lauded for how deeply it ingrains itself in your psyche.

The problems start, however, when Clark finds the Backrooms. Stuck with a sky-high electric bill while simultaneously suffering power outages, Clark is sent over the edge when he can no longer watch his 70s B-TV show while lounging in a store bed at night, so he goes to investigate. Spotting a sliver of light in the basement wall, Clark “falls” into the Backrooms.

And then walks right back out.

Well, not immediately. Clark wanders around for a good portion of the runtime, taking in all the oddly designed rooms and compartments, and whatever they might hold. Shot with a handheld, this is captivating, edge of your seat work (and the sequence with the handheld is far and away the best of the film). Shot steadily? It very quickly becomes a bore.

The issue here is that there is no tension or urgency whatsoever, a killer in almost every film, an absolute movie-ender when it’s a horror film. Clark isn’t trapped in the Backrooms, he’s simply curious. He has no motivation besides, “what’s behind this wall? Or this door?” And while each offering finds a way to keep it fresh and eye-catching, the shtick grows old after about ten to fifteen minutes.

The film tries to prevent this by opening with another handheld sequence that reveals the Backrooms hold a mysterious, and highly dangerous, creature. And there’s a moment during Clark’s first venture into this liminal space that it seems this creature is after him. He runs back to the entrance, and suddenly — he’s stuck! The wall is solid. But then he moves a little bit to the left… and he leaves. And then comes back for a stool, and leaves again.

And that’s the overarching issue with the film, boiled down to one specific example. There is no urgency, no tension until the final act. And the film is courageous for resisting the impulse to just be another jump-scare filled roller coaster ride… but the issue is it’s a superficial psychological drama instead. Our characters don’t seem to have any actual goals outside of the immediate story.

A more minor issue, and in all honesty, a nit-pick, is the location. And no, I definitely do not mean the Backrooms. I mean the real world. Choosing a furniture store as the central setting was a choice. There’s definitely some solid thought behind it; the location is, more or less, a place that stores things, same with the Backrooms. But where the Backrooms earns its eerie, uncanny dread is the suffocating office locations it replicates. Captain Clark’s Ottoman Empire is large, open, and visible. It feels like a nice, warm place to roam around in, easy to escape. The only place that leans into this claustrophobic feeling is Clark’s back office.

If the film had placed Clark in an office setting, working a 9-5 at a dead-end, lifeless job in a too-small cubicle, trapped sitting in front of a screen for eight hours a day, only to find himself unable to escape this hell of a life, would’ve worked much better for the themes it was trying to explore. Have him drift off at a midnight showing of a movie, the only alone time he gets, where he can rest and recuperate, only to wake up and try to exit, but find he has become trapped in the Backrooms.

Curiosity only works for so long, yet the motivation is the one that underlines Backrooms throughout its runtime. The film takes a step up once Mary enters the Backrooms, and she herself finds that she needs to escape, but it’s a painfully average 90 minutes that come beforehand. Despite this, Parsons debut still displays some promising features that all but guarantee we’re heading for a classic from the 20 year old later on. His knack for visual storytelling, both through character and setting, rivals that of his much, much older peers.

Yet, Backrooms, ultimately, plays it too simple to leave a lasting impression days after the credits roll. Clark may not have fallen asleep in a theater, but I nearly did.

Three stars out of five.