{"id":67719,"date":"2026-05-28T02:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/?p=67719"},"modified":"2026-05-27T19:27:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:27:39","slug":"backrooms-movie-review-a24-kane-parsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/backrooms-movie-review-a24-kane-parsons\/","title":{"rendered":"A24\u2019s \u2018Backrooms\u2019: Liminal Horror Meets Mainstream Ambition"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style='background:#f7fafc;padding:15px;'>\n<p><strong>Quick Read<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Directed by 20-year-old YouTube creator Kane Parsons.<\/li>\n<li>Stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.<\/li>\n<li>Currently holds a 78% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>From Internet Legend to A24 Prestige<\/h2>\n<p>The transition from viral internet lore to big-budget studio production is fraught with creative peril, yet A24\u2019s latest offering, <em>Backrooms<\/em>, attempts this leap with significant resources and star power. Directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, the film adapts his own popular YouTube short films into a 110-minute feature. With a production budget and backing from industry titans like James Wan and Shawn Levy, the project represents a high-stakes bet on the viability of &#8216;liminal space&#8217; horror in the mainstream market.<\/p>\n<h2>The Architecture of Dread<\/h2>\n<p>The film\u2019s premise centers on Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a failing furniture store proprietor in 1990s California who stumbles through a wall into a seemingly infinite, windowless expanse of yellow-hued corridors and acoustic tiles. The production design, led by Danny Vermette, succeeds in creating a visceral sense of unease, utilizing both physical sets and digital fabrication to evoke the oppressive atmosphere of a decaying office space. As noted in <em>The Guardian<\/em>, the film masterfully captures a &#8220;crepuscular kind of dead yellowish light&#8221; that defines the liminal experience.<\/p>\n<p>The narrative stakes are anchored by the performances of Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, who plays his therapist. Their characters are framed as individuals struggling with deep-seated personal isolation, mirroring the physical entrapment of the Backrooms themselves. Critics have praised the film&#8217;s ability to maintain tension without relying solely on traditional jump scares, opting instead for a &#8220;shivery poem&#8221; approach to horror, as described by <em>Variety<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>Critical Reception and Market Performance<\/h2>\n<p>Early box office projections estimate an opening weekend between $40-50 million, a strong start for an experimental horror debut. However, critical consensus remains divided, reflected in its 78% Rotten Tomatoes score. While some reviewers, such as those at <em>ScreenCrush<\/em>, laud Parsons for his &#8220;dramatic chops&#8221; and visual ingenuity, others argue that the film\u2019s narrative becomes &#8220;underbaked&#8221; as it attempts to provide answers to a mystery that thrives on ambiguity.<\/p>\n<p>The film\u2019s climax has drawn particular scrutiny, with some critics suggesting that the shift toward a more conventional, action-oriented resolution undermines the existential terror established in the first two acts. Despite these narrative shortcomings, <em>Backrooms<\/em> remains a significant cultural artifact, signaling a shift in how studios leverage digital-native talent to revitalize established genre tropes.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ultimately, Backrooms serves as a compelling, if imperfect, experiment in atmospheric storytelling. While its attempt to bridge the gap between abstract internet folklore and traditional narrative structure occasionally falters, the film succeeds in its primary goal: to unsettle. By grounding high-concept, surrealist horror in the mundane misery of late-20th-century professional life, Parsons demonstrates a technical proficiency that suggests a promising future, even if this specific entry struggles to reconcile its experimental roots with the demands of the box office.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director Kane Parsons makes his feature debut with &#8216;Backrooms,&#8217; an A24-backed adaptation of the internet creepypasta that explores existential dread through an infinite, yellow-hued labyrinth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow5Nm1DA:productID":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[12278,5849,56746],"class_list":["post-67719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-a24","tag-horror","tag-liminal-spaces"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/backrooms-film-liminal-space.jpg","_embedded":{"wp:featuredmedia":[{"id":-1,"source_url":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/backrooms-film-liminal-space.jpg","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67886,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67719\/revisions\/67886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}