A24 is giving the world a “Backrooms” movie. Near the end of February, the entertainment company released its first teaser trailer for the movie that is set to hit theaters May 29.
The film will center around the idea that two people find a mysterious door that leads them to a furniture showroom in a basement.
This new movie is adapting Kane Parsons’ YouTube series and it stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell and Avan Jogia. With Parsons directing the film, his atmospheric, first-person-based style is expected for the silver screen adaptation.
In 2022, Parsons, also known as "Kane Pixels,“ created the first of the “Backrooms” short films inspired by the viral 4-chan post that introduced the horror legend to the internet. This series led him right into the directing role for the A24 movie. Parsons now stands as the company’s youngest director, as he was 17 when the film went into production.
The trailer only has a few voices and shows none of the actors.
“I found something … I found a place. It’s massive in there. It just goes on and on and on. All these rooms,” the faceless voice says in the trailer. “This place built them. Actually, more like it remembers them. And the more times it remembers something, the less it does.”
It also reveals a yellow house, which takes the viewers down multiple levels as a disembodied figure gliding through the floor. The vibe attempts to scare and intrigue viewers, showing that the new movie will look much like the original image and short film series.
Emerging from a 2003 photo released about the renovation of a HobbyTown store, the Backrooms have become a public image that many horror netizens know and fear. In 2011, the image made it to the public bulletin board 4chan. An eerie message about the image was written in 2019, unlocking a collective unsettlement and creativity in fans.
The viral 4chan is known as a creepypasta, or horror stories created on internet forums. The spookiness of the Backrooms is not just a never-ending labyrinth, but also the sense of dread
It has evolved from the original post, appearing in stories and posts written by people all over the internet. There is no official canon of the fictional Backrooms, and the movie will be the first to create a firm foundation for the story.
The Backrooms, in the new film, is an endless maze of empty rooms in an old office space illuminated by sickly yellow walls. The location is nonexistent, resembling purgatory in some ways. Although there are no humans inside these rooms, unseen entities make the viewer feel as though they are being followed.
The teaser trailer has a lot of fans excited.
“I actually really liked this trailer. I think for the kind of movie that I’m assuming this is going to be, it fits in really well, and it does a really great job at showing, like … I’m not sure what the exact terminology is … I don’t want to say no-clipping, but I think it’s no-clipping. The degradation of the chair is so interesting. The window. The different details in the room,” TikTok creator @starring_spencer reviewed in a TikTok video.
Other users tried to analyze the content.
“It seems like it can replicate the exact room over and over again with just like Control C - Control V accuracy, except there are minor differences because of the general warping of the complex itself. And I’m really glad he actually included that in the teaser. It really does seem like a metaphor for humans’ loss of control, somebody losing their mind and going insane. All of their memories slipping away until eventually it’s just nothing,” YouTuber @Broogli commented in a video.
Since the teaser trailer has little content, it makes sense for fans to be excited but skeptical. Teaser trailers have likely been misleading before, and people will be on high alert until the end of May, when they can see the final product.
Hopefully, Parsons exceeds the expectations and sets people up for a future of new horror films. Mainstreaming the Backrooms content will send more people to the story and create a whole new world within the story.
