‘I Found a Place’: How Backrooms Captures the Horror of Sinister Architecture The latest A24 thriller, Backrooms, plunges viewers into an unsettling journey through liminal spaces, transforming mundane architecture into a source of existential dread. The film follows Clark, a furniture store owner and architect played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who stumbles upon a mysterious portal to a labyrinthine realm of endless fluorescent-lit rooms. His attempts to explain this phenomenon to his therapist, Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve), become a chilling exploration of the psychological toll of navigating an unknowable, bureaucratic void. Directed by Kane Parsons, the 20-year-old filmmaker and youngest to collaborate with A24, Backrooms evolved from a series of YouTube shorts created using free 3D software like Blender and Adobe After Effects. These shorts, which first gained traction in 2019, introduced the concept of “backrooms”—a fictionalized expansion of the dead malls that became internet folklore in the early 2000s. The first image to popularize liminal spaces was a 2003 photo of a renovated furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where the emptiness of a shuttered big-box retail space evoked a sense of disorientation. As these physical spaces decayed, they became symbolic of the alienation of modern life, existing in a state of liminality between the real and the imagined. The film’s central setting, the backrooms, is a vast, repetitive expanse of identical rooms with drop ceilings, yellow-tinged lighting, and walls adorned with corporate-style wallpaper. These spaces, which defy logic and geography, mirror the bureaucratic sterility of modern institutions.#a24 #chiwetel_ejiofor #renate_reinsve #backrooms #kane_parsons
Endless yellow corridors started as an internet meme - now it's a Hollywood horror film The concept of the Backrooms, once a whispered internet meme, has evolved into a full-fledged Hollywood horror film. The idea of endless, fluorescent-lit corridors with no clear exit has captured the imagination of millions, transforming from a dark online joke into a cinematic exploration of isolation and psychological dread. The film, titled Backrooms, is the latest project from A24, the studio behind the Oscar-nominated horror film The Substance. Directed by 20-year-old Parsons, the film blends the eerie atmosphere of its internet origins with a narrative that delves into mental health and the lingering effects of trauma. The Backrooms originated in 2019 as a cryptic message board post on 4chan, where users were asked to share unsettling images that felt "off." One user uploaded a photo of an abandoned office space, its mustard-yellow walls and flickering fluorescent lights evoking a sense of claustrophobic dread. The accompanying text described a place where reality could fracture, where the walls stretched infinitely, and where the sound of buzzing lights and the scent of old carpet created an oppressive, disorienting environment. The post warned of the dangers of "noclip" glitches—gaming terms for teleporting through digital spaces—and hinted at the possibility of encountering something lurking in the shadows. The post's vivid, almost poetic description of the Backrooms resonated with internet users, sparking a subculture of horror enthusiasts and creepypasta fans. Its popularity grew rapidly, with the concept becoming a shared experience among those who had encountered the idea through forums, YouTube videos, or gaming communities.#a24 #parsons #chiwetel_ejiofor #renate_reinsve #backrooms
