Review Of Movie Architecture: Backrooms (2026)

As is only fair with a horror movie, I’m not going to give any plot spoilers. To some extent that’s quite easy: like a lot of A24‘s movies, I’m not sure the plot entirely makes sense. But you don’t go see their movies, including this one, for the plot as much for the feel of it, and for individual scenes, and those are both very good. The feel of it, as described below, is based on some Youtube shorts by the director, Kane Parsons, which were in turn based on an existing internet meme. In other words, this is the modern version of a campfire tale. The Backrooms are an endless series of connected liminal spaces that exist where they should not be and contain misshapen versions of objects that the viewer has seen in real life. (There are several stop signs that read POTS, for example, and furniture half embedded in walls.) The ceiling is a never-ending expanse of acoustic tile and fluorescent lights; the walls mostly ugly yellow wallpaper, and the floors mostly ugly yellow linoleum or…