Backrooms, a forthcoming psychological horror film directed by Kane Parsons, will adapt his virally popular YouTube web series and internet Creepypasta of the same name. The film will hit theaters in the U.S. backed by A24 on May 29, 2026.
Parsons has more than 190 million views for his YouTube horror series. He will be A24’s youngest director at 20. Take note of that.
Backrooms
We’re expecting the plot to be relatively straightforward, about a therapist chasing down a missing client in an alternate dimension. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays furniture store owner Clark, and Renate Reinsve co-stars as psychologist Dr. Mary Kline. She treats him. Ejiofor’s character clicks a door into an infinite carpeted maze in a basement of a furniture showroom that opens into expanding rooms that will consume him.
The movie will star Ejiofor, Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell. Duplass has already been talking about what it was like to shoot the movie. He told Collider that Parsons “was in charge” and shared that I “got there, and I was like, ‘This guy is so in charge and knows every detail down to the last thing.’ He was so patient and good with the actors, with us. It was so impressive to watch him command that set in a lovely and humble way.”
Marketing
A24 has been creative behind the scenes, too. The first teaser came out on February 24, 2026, and got 5 million views and 100,000 likes. The full trailer was released on March 31 and received 20 million views and nearly half a million likes in its first week.
There was also a season 2 announcement on April 4. A24 released a commercial for a fictional furniture store from the film called “Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire.” This particular commercial was a pretty great spoof of a vintage VHS advertisement.
Principal photography occurred between July and August 2025 in Vancouver, Canada. The movie is being co-produced by A24, Chernin Entertainment, Atomic Monster, and 21 Laps Entertainment.
When asked by Dazed what he thinks of the premise, Parsons said that “The Backrooms is not – and never has been – something that I think about as an internet trend or a meme. It’s just a story I genuinely care about, with characters I genuinely care about.”
Backrooms will hit theaters on May 29, 2026.
