Though the word “backrooms” confuses older generations due to its simple meaning, nearly every Gen Z knows what it is. In 2019, the concept of the backrooms began. An unsettling image of an empty room with vintage wallpaper and dim lighting began to go viral. This photo led to a horror video game that grew popular.
In the midst of the backroom popularity, the movie “Backrooms” was announced and later released on May 29, 2026. Many teenagers began to ponder what this movie based on a mysterious room would be about.
The movie begins with a recorded video from a cassette tape highlighting the date, June 19, 1990, showing the time period this movie takes place. The date alone creates an eerie start to the movie because of the unadvanced technology recording the scene.
As an unknown male begins to record with the tape, the only thing visual to the audience is a maze of rooms similar to the trending backrooms photo. As he runs around calling for help and still filming, he realizes a creature is chasing him. The audience doesn’t see what takes him as he drops the camera, creating suspense.
The dim and flickering lights, static sound and eerie mood of the scene intensified the feeling, which made it more scary. The fierce introduction of the movie amplifies the quick pace the movie would have and established my expectations for the rest of the film. The rest of the film didn’t meet the expectations that were created.
The next few scenes move slowly as they introduce new characters including the main characters- Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mary (Renate Reinsve). Because I hadn’t heard of either actor before I saw this movie, that didn’t do anything to capture my interest. Both actors, though, made me feel every emotion along with them.
As the relationships develop between Clark and his therapist Mary, we realize that Clark is struggling with his mental health and isn’t emotionally stable. I felt some sympathy towards Clark, because naturally we want him to get better.
The next scenes trudge on and cause more confusion than anything else. Clark discovers a wall that leads to another dimension, also known as the backrooms, but it isn’t clearly shown how. The movie also doesn’t clearly state that it’s another dimension, which leads the audience to have to make many assumptions for themselves. While Clark is in this other dimension, Mary begins a search for him and also enters the backrooms. This discovery scene spends a great amount of time dramatizing the empty rooms in attempts to be scary, but it was actually quite boring for an audience to just sit and watch.
The ending is left to the audience’s interpretation. I would rather be told what an exact ending is so I can correlate my emotions to the ending.
I would recommend “Backrooms” if you truly understand the lore behind it and don’t mind a horror movie with a slower pace and ambiguous ending. It’s definitely a movie you can’t understand without doing any research or just going in blind. The group of people who enjoyed it also enjoy the video game and understand how it works.
If you like the movie “Vivarium” or physiological horrors in general, you’ll find “Backrooms” entertaining. Though if you want a quick pace horror movie that will make you leave feeling horrified, don’t watch it. Some of the scenes well demonstrate what the backrooms would be like in reality based on the original photo, but others are dragged on.
