In a March 2026 article from Vogue magazine, editor Daisy Jones wrote, “In recent months, there’s been a renewed obsession with the ‘90s,” and this woman isn’t just writing about fashion trends. Current TV shows like “Love Story” (2026), “Yellowjackets” (2021), and the science-fiction drama “The Last of Us” (2023- ) have helped spur widespread interest in 1990s pop culture. Some recent films have also contributed to this interest like “Caught Stealing” (2025) and “Plainclothes” (2025).
Now people have a new film exploring ‘90s nostalgia but in a much more sinister way. This new film is “Backrooms” directed and originated by Kane Parsons ("People Still Live Here", 2025). Set in 1990 California, Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor, "The Man Who Fell to Earth", 2022) is the frustrated owner of a discount furniture store Captain Clark’s Ottoman Empire. When checking the circuit breakers in the store’s basement, Clark discovers a hidden portal to a series of plain office rooms appearing to be empty of life or movement. Full carpeting, yellow wallpaper, and fluorescent lighting in dropped ceilings; these rooms go on forever. And the more Clark explores these ordinary spaces, the more confused he becomes.
“Backrooms” is a psychological, arthouse mystery that feels like one half “Alice in Wonderland” (1951 or 1999) and one half “The Shining” (1980). I had a great time watching this one. Many people would categorize this film as horror, but I didn’t feel very frightened while watching it. “Backrooms” is more like a cerebral thriller that maintains a quiet unease with the delicacy of a house of mirrors and the danger of a tightrope.
Because this film is so austere and strange, it’s unpredictable, uncomfortable, and unlike anything else playing in movie theaters right now. This bold uniqueness explains how “Backrooms” earned over $81 million domestically in its opening weekend, reminding us movie lovers are still out there, but they just need interesting reasons to get back into theaters.
As Clark explores the Backrooms farther, his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve, "Sentimental Value", 2025) ventures in after him to offer help…but then gradually learns a deadly force is in the Backrooms with them. It might appear superficially to be a dimension of secret dangers, but this whole film is an inventive reflection of memory, trauma, and identity. So many people will have varied interpretations from this film, and that's part of its sparse ingenuity.
Before this film, director Kane Parsons created a series of shorts on YouTube called “The Backrooms” from 2022-2025. So this new release is a fuller, more rounded, treatment of the themes in the series, and Mr. Parsons might be a jarring new leader in suspenseful analogue filmmaking.
“Backrooms” has such a striking vision (both mentally and physically) of isolating liminal spaces. It reminds me of other ambiguous spooky films “Under the Skin” (2013) and “Annihilation” (2018). It’s also reminiscent of Andre Tarkovsky films like “Solaris” (1972) and “Stalker” (1979).
Presenting a curious, geometric, liminal space, sprinkled with incongruous pieces from the outside world, "Backrooms" is a metaphor for displacement and gentrification. The two leading characters struggle for belonging and a sense of place. Maybe what they find in the Backrooms is what they have hoped for (even though it isn't exactly authentic). The physical setting of doors, hallways, and sunken pieces of furniture also point to this film as a metaphor of the internet which first boomed in the 1990s.
When the internet connected people to the rest of the world, home computers opened many doors which never previously existed. But the internet builds itself by duplicating objects and people from the real world, resulting in a slightly distorted artificial reality. If you can't tell the difference between actual reality and a slightly distorted one (or if you don't care about such a difference), you can get easily sucked into an altered way of living.
Approximately 30,000 square feet of interior space was built to create the haunting world of this film, so production designer Danny Vermette ("Longlegs", 2024) also deserves credit for this success. "Backrooms" is so different and so brilliant, you might feel the need to watch it more than once.
