A strange, twisting space is discovered by Clark in the basement of his store. Miles and miles of rooms with yellow wallpaper, bright fluorescent lights, furniture, and other strange artifacts. Clark’s own emotional issues entangle Mary (his therapist) and his young worker into this vast space. As Clark emotionally collapses, Mary witnesses how such a maze can have many monsters.

Summary

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Clark is a divorced owner of a failing furniture store facing growing bills and the realization that his dream to be an architect is going nowhere. Mary is a psychiatrist with a new book out and deep-seated childhood trauma. When Clark finds the Backrooms through a break in reality in the basement of his store, he approaches it like a chance to break out of his rut.

It is not long before Clark starts dragging other people into the fold, include Mary. But while Clark found something like a strange salvation in the vast empty place, Mary is forced to confront many layers of monsters and her own sense of self.

Review (Spoiler Free)

I think Kane Parson’s 2026 Backrooms hit enough of a zeitgeist moment that if you are into any general horror sphere, especially the kind of liminal- + indie-horror space, then you have strong opinions about this already. This review is largely not for you. I’m not sure who it is for. Me, most likely.

I assume most of the target audience, including those who have not seen it, already have an opinion. Whether you are the type that is enthused that young creators are being given a chance to inject fresh ideas into the genre (like me) or (unlike me) you are deeply bothered that Parsons did not respect TikTok user’s BimboyPinoy3317’s detailed accounting of the 9812th level where stuffed animals ride up and down elevators. Don’t let them catch you outside of your fursuit, Space Pilgrims.1

The most succinct review I can give is pretty simple: I’ve watched it four times (2x alone, 1x with commentary, 1x with my spouse) and I already am looking forward to watching it again.

I love the movie. I do not merely like the movie. I adore it.

I absolute recommend it assuming you like the sorts of movie where long camera shots set moods; where emotional trauma is both literally and figuratively established in the sets and scenes; where the soundtrack and sound design are a pair of characters; and where the ending is obviously not any such thing. It is an ending. It is not the ending.

I love the set design. I love the soundtrack. I love the sound design. I love the times the movie shifts back to the original Kane Pixels style hand-cam footage. The little nods.

Characters are great. Actors are great. I love the dialogue between Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. Mark Duplass? Amazing. Lukita Maxwell and Finn Bennett? Yes, please.

I like the 90s setting. One minor nibble is that there would have been more smoking, probably. Furniture in that era would have had some ash trays. Even if they were unused for obvious reason, it wasn’t too uncommon for non-smokers to keep them around just in case guests showed up.

I like the additions to Kane Parsons’ ongoing Backrooms series. Stuff is just strange enough and the timeline is matching up to the web-series. I do not quite love the wider dropping of A-Sync without more explanation because that kind of stuff leads to a lot of commentary online with phrases like, “A-Sync is a byproduct of the Backrooms.” On repeat.

Again, very few notes. Just sheer enjoyment.

And yes, I am currently playing the soundtrack while writing this.

Deeper Dive [SPOILER ALERT]

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AFTER THIS

This movie has inspired me to do something different, probably tomorrow. Something I am going to call EXTREME THEORYCRAFTING! A spoilerific, full descent into madness where I combine reasonable theories I have about the world-mythos and add in hefty doses of sheer wild takes.

I did want to take a moment just to say that I love how the relatively young Parsons (see also: the older screenwriter) has done such a good job of exploring another liminal horror: being at that middle-transition of your own life.

Clark is watching his life go belly-up. His store is failing. His marriage has failed. His two most positive relationships (seen on screen) are his therapist and his assistant manager.

The AM seems to work there mostly begrudgingly.

The therapist is at the cusp where her life is working. She has a book and tape series out and there are some folks enjoying it (though Clark is the only person we see confirmed to believe in her writings and that’s a failure). While there is clear childhood trauma related to her family house being torn down, this also represents a freeing from the past.

Despite this, we see both are also lost in that transitional state.

How old is Clark? How long ago does his divorce play in? He mentions Barbara (his ex-wife) being a “thirty-year old freshman.” He wears a shirt from a 1970 design emporium. Something he might have gotten as a college student himself or right after college, making Clark roughly Ejiofor’s age. But is Barbara twenty-years younger? Kelly Craig, who posed for the in-universe photograph that is our glance, is only around 7 years younger.

Is Clark unable to realize his wife is now in her early 40s and still sees her trapped in time? Like a …still-life? Or has he been divorced and holding on to that store for a much longer time?

Likewise, Mary looks to be the same age as when she witnessed the destruction of her family home but she has that rock her desk and it possible could have been there for a long time. Her wall decorations tend to be clocks, diplomas, and an immensity of paintings contrasting the surface with the underneath.

Props to the…um, you know…the props people. Sorry for the accidental pun.

Both of them are quite possibly not new to their transition but both are treating it as though it is new. Both alone. Both have each other as a major relationship. A terrible, failed approximation of friendship.

Unlike most, I do not take the Red-Headed Still-Life to be literally Barbara, by the way. Clark just assumes she is.

Some bonus +1s for the movie: the face Kat makes when Bobby tells her to give a message to his mom, the whole “tables don’t bleed blood” thing, the way the A-Sync person seems almost more freaked out by Mary than Cap’n Clark, the stupid ottoman pun I did not get until around the third viewing.

One bonus -1: damned movie spent a whole lot of time promising a damned WINDOW for there to be no WINDOW.

  1. I made all that up but let’s just say “just.” ↩︎