'Backrooms' explained: How Kane Parsons turned a viral internet nightmare into a major Hollywood movie

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers and key details from the film 'Backrooms'. Reader discretion is advised if you haven't watched it yet.With its concept of endless abandoned corridors and disquieting liminal spaces, 'Backrooms' is the newest horror craze to grab the attention of audiences. The film is part of a web culture that starts as a meme on the online forum 4Chan, which quickly turns into a wildly successful YouTube series that has garnered more than 200 million hits. Kane Parsons, the creator behind the beloved online content, steps into his directorial debut with this feature adaptation, bringing the disturbing concept of mono-yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lighting to the big screen. The film explores how internet-native concepts are becoming the next frontier for Hollywood studios seeking to connect with younger audiences.According to the BBC, the concept of 'Backrooms' came about in 2019, when anonymous users on 4chan were asked to "post disquieting images that just feel 'off'." One user posts an image of an abandoned office space and writes: "If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality [gaming terminology for glitching or disappearing] in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in."Kane Parsons, now 20 years old, becomes the youngest director when enlisted for the film adaptation. His task in 2023 is clear: to drag this isolating hellscape kicking and screaming onto the big screen, and in a way that resembles his YouTube series.Parsons reveals that what excites him most about the project is using a Hollywood budget to dive deeper and bring a "real physicality" to ensure the film feels "distinct from the YouTube series". The team behind the film achieves this by building a vast 30,000 sq ft set based on his Blender designs, bearing similarity to his first YouTube video—"Found Footage"—which has 80 million views and features shaky 90s camcorder footage of the eerie, yellow office block."I think it lets us buy into the characters to a greater degree," Parsons explains of his approach to the production.The film, written by Will Soodik, uses the concept of 'Backrooms' to explore mental health themes. Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Clark, a frustrated furniture store salesman struggling following the breakup of his marriage. As tensions grow between him and his therapist, Mary, played by Renate Reinsve, Clark discovers the store's route to the Backrooms—a space that begins to prey upon the pair's unresolved traumas.The big screen lure of 'Backrooms' reflects the online rise of a very particular fear: the idea of a liminal—or transitional—space. The 'Backrooms' has a forum on Reddit with more than 350,000 subscribers. Forum moderators say there's something "deeply existential" about the concept and that it's less about monsters and "more from the uncertainty of what else might already exist in the space with you".TikTok is filled with 'Backrooms'-themed clips—cumulatively topping 30 billion views—highlighting the popularity of this 90s-themed landscape with Gen Z. Internet researcher Gunseli Yalcinkaya says a mournful nostalgia for pre-internet memories and spaces, and the isolation of the Covid pandemic, may explain why young people are drawn to ideas like 'Backrooms'.Yalcinkaya notes it captures the dissatisfaction of what it means to be a young person today, "where reality is constantly being mediated through screens—there's already a sense that reality is glitching, nothing feels real anymore".The online trailer for 'Backrooms' quickly becomes one of the most-viewed film uploads, with 31 million views. Early projections for 'Backrooms' look "really promising", with expectations that it will easily exceed its $10 million budget.Matthew Frank, author of The Ankler's Crowd Pleaser newsletter, says the YouTube-to-big screen pipeline "feels like a sea change". Hollywood executives look to internet-native culture for audiences and for filmmakers like Parsons. It helps the studios that these names come with "preset audiences" at a time when cinema struggles against streaming.As for Parsons, headlines in the media make much of how young he is to be directing a Hollywood film—a focus that tires him. He worries his relative inexperience could impact perception, but it "never came up" on set. "Almost immediately, it was just us, in a vacuum, talking about the project… I like to think I made up for any lack of experience by being completely obsessive," he shares.'Backrooms' finds plenty to explore in this concept, proving that internet-native IP holds tremendous appeal for audiences seeking something distinct from traditional Hollywood fare.