A24’s Backrooms movie teaser trailer is so promising to Backrooms fans

We’ve just gotten a closer look at A24’s upcoming horror film Backrooms, based on the viral YouTube series based on internet creepypasta. And as a Backrooms fan myself, I’m feeling surprisingly optimistic that this movie might get it right. I was skeptical when I first heard a film adaptation was in the works: Creepypasta historically hasn’t translated to film super well, and the movie is being directed by a 17-year-old. But honestly, despite how little we’ve seen of the film, this trailer left me feeling the movie is in the right hands.

I’ve been into the Backrooms concept (and liminal spaces in general) as long as I can remember. I follow subreddits where urban explorers post photos of old structures that seem frozen in time, or buildings with bizarre layouts, like this hotel with an indoor courtyard at Heathrow Airport. When the Backrooms concept went mainstream several months into the pandemic, I was instantly drawn in. The setup is simple: You are trapped in a familiar-yet-unfamiliar maze of strangely designed rooms covered in yellow wallpaper. Below you is a curiously damp carpet, above you are buzzing fluorescent lights, and there is no clear way to escape. The first description of the Backrooms (arguably the only good thing to ever come out of 4chan) paints the picture quite clearly:

“If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality 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,” reads a frequently quoted anonymous comment on the post that started it all. “God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.”

That last sentence implies that something or someone is lurking in the Backrooms, waiting to attack. But in their infancy, the Backrooms were largely about uncomfortable, difficult-to-articulate vibes. There’s a certain intangibility to the whole idea, and much of the horror comes from the inexplicableness of it all. The Backrooms thrive on kenopsia — the unsettling sense that a place is both familiar and unfamiliar, and has been abandoned by the passage of time.

In the wake of the initial Backrooms boom, creative writers rushed to create lore. Now there are hundreds of Backrooms “levels” — meaning individual spaces or “building blocks” within this fictional liminal space. And disappointingly, most writers fill them with goofy monsters. In my opinion, turning the Backrooms into another setting for standard monster horror completely destroys the tension, and misses the point. It’s one thing to imply that something is in the Backrooms, hunting those unfortunate enough to wind up there. But it’s quite another to fill every other level with some SCP knock-off. Even frequent contributors to Backrooms lore say they’re sick of the overabundance of monsters.

But one creator has, in my opinion, consistently gotten Backrooms content right: 17-year-old VFX artist and filmmaker Kane Parsons, better known by his YouTube handle, Kane Pixels. In January 2022, Parsons uploaded a nine-minute short film titled “The Backrooms (Found Footage)” to YouTube. Set in 1996, the short follows a teenage boy who is filming a video with some friends, but “noclips” into the Backrooms after accidentally tripping and falling. The unfortunate protagonist explores a variety of strange rooms (including one clearly inspired by the aforementioned Heathrow Airport hotel courtyard), before eventually encountering a freaky-looking entity that appears to be made of wire. He doesn’t die at the creature’s hands, however. He meets a far more shocking fate that raises more questions than it answers.

The video now has more than 71 million views, and Parsons has been cranking out Backrooms content ever since. Some of his videos contain monsters, but most of his “footage” focuses on telling stories. That can mean following people lost in the backrooms, offering glimpses into the lives of Backrooms employees, or presenting lore drops that look deeper into the Backrooms’ inner workings. But Parsons’ work is almost never focused solely on the creature(s) inhabiting the Backrooms. That makes him the perfect person for the job when it comes to a Backrooms film adaptation.

Aside from being an incredibly skilled storyteller and VFX artist, Parsons seems to understand that a good Backrooms story, be it written or filmed, requires nuance and steady pacing that defies the rhythm of the average Hollywood horror flick. Constant in-your-face jumpscares and in-depth explanations of what exactly is lurking in the Backrooms actually makes the concept less scary.

Image: Kane Pixels/Kane Parsons

So I was thrilled that A24’s new teaser trailer for Parsons’ upcoming feature film Backrooms shows nary a hint of a monster. The teaser consists solely of a long panning shot that starts in a singular room, complete with the iconic yellow wallpaper, buzzing fluorescents, damp carpet, and an old recliner chair sitting in a corner. As the shot moves downward through different iterations of that room, the space begins to change. The recliner inexplicably sinks into the floor, à la This House Has People In It, as the windows and doorways become increasingly abstract and notional.

“All these rooms, this place builds them,” a man says in voiceover. “Actually, more like it… remembers them.”

Unlike most trailers for horror flicks, Parsons’ Backrooms teaser doesn’t end with footage of a protagonist running down a hallway in terror, or a jump-cut of a monster springing out of hiding. Tension builds throughout the 53-second teaser, but it never reaches an explosive crescendo. Instead, it suggests the Backrooms are an entity, similar to The Oldest House in Control.

Whether or not the film features the strange, wire-bound monster from Parsons’ YouTube channel (or any monsters at all) hasn’t been revealed yet. But based on the teaser, it seems like A24 understands that Parsons’ YouTube creations are popular in part because of their restrained approach to horror. While a flashy, scream-filled trailer might get more butts in theater seats, it would ultimately lead to a disappointing experience for long-time Backrooms fans. Parsons’ YouTube creations have always included plenty of payoff and pulse-pounding moments. Like his work on YouTube, the teaser trailer for Parsons’ debut feature aims to gently draw viewers in with curious visuals and no immediate threats. By the time they realize they aren’t alone there, the door they entered the Backrooms through will have long since disappeared.

Whatever is or isn’t lurking in the endless, yellowed halls of the Backrooms will become clear when Backrooms noclips into theaters on May 29.