Backrooms
2026 · Directed by Kane Parsons
Original language: English
- horror
- mystery
- science fiction
The story
A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.
What it’s like
Sickly fluorescent light over endless beige carpet and yellowed partition walls, the palette drained to ochre, grey-green and hum-buzzed off-white, with the hush of empty rooms broken only by the drone of ceiling lights. The film moves between found-footage handheld intimacy, shaky and close, and cooler, more deliberate frames of suburban California interiors in the 1990s: sun-bleached streets, tract-home kitchens, a therapist's office lit by flat afternoon glare. Sound is sparse, mostly room tone and distant, wrong-sounding echoes, with a low synth pulse surfacing at tense moments. The vibe is uneasy and melancholy, sun-bleached dread that suits a late-night watch alone with the lights off or a slow, unsettled weekend afternoon. Pacing is measured, with long stretches of wandering and quiet building toward jolting scares, and the emotional register leans on grief, buried childhood memories and a tired, damaged protagonist slowly confronting what he has avoided. Horror is the core: frightening, unsettling imagery and jump-scare moments, with some violence and menace, and the dread is more atmospheric than gory. For viewers who want surreal, claustrophobic liminal horror with a melancholic, character-driven core and a strong sense of place.
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