Backrooms [2026] Review
This movie threads the needle between cinematic experience and youtube analogue horror, delivering a compelling and enigmatic watch that worked just right.
Wild to have something feel claustrophobic and agoraphobic at the same time. I was worried it'd be all hand-held shaky cam, but it does a great job balancing the original project's analogue-horror feel with cinematography that isn't nauseating. There are shaky cam sections, but they all feel thematic and well implemented without outlasting their welcome.
In a project like this, you also worry about it either re-hashing crap you're already seen, or retconning too much of the source material to maintain fidelity to what made the original compelling. I'm not a huge fan of the youtube/gaming side of The Backrooms, but I felt it did a great job with balancing the material for both new and returning fans.
The look of the film is spot on, evoking both the source material and more cinematic inspirations like Lynch and This House Has People In It [THHPII]. It left me wondering how much of the film was traditional constructed sets, and how much was rendered in post and painted in. The setting manages to feel visually perfect, and it tapped into some of the looks of the various levels of the backrooms, without feeling like a travelogue trying to check boxes based on video games. I also appreciated the work that went into making some sections of the backrooms recognizeable, letting me get my bearings when we returned to old locations.
The, uh, life form [?] in the backrooms turned out both surprising and familiar, managing to feel like a glitched video game without being literal adaptations from the various other backrooms projects. I like that the main conflict was more interior than exterior, but the way the movie goes about it, it leaves the internal/external distinction in a kind of narrative limbo that was really effective. It was suggestive of a certain metaphysics, but it never went so far as to explain everything, and the ambiguity is important to the horror this kind of film tries to evoke.
The film also blended diagetic and non-diagetic sound in a way that was really cool. It's somewhat disorienting, but the technique allowed for a blending of cinematic reality with cinematic fiction that helped to prop up the themes and deepen the immersive feel of the movie.
I think there's a lot to draw out of the movie in terms of themes relating to parenting, mental illness, freedom and personal identity. I don't wanna go too deep into them here, but there was a lot to sink your teeth into if you're looking for more than a shaky-cam ride along through a maze of beige offices.
It wasn't an enthralling experience like Heretic [2024] or Shin Godzilla [2016], but it was a creepy one that'll stick with me for a while. It has a really interesting relationship with other projects, like Duskmourn [2024] from MTG, Slenderman [c~2012], Vivarium [2019], Twin Peaks [1991], Iron Lung [2026], and THHPII [2016]. This might be a stretch, but I could see there being some connection to the podcast Pretending to be People [2018].
It's been neat to watch horror change from the sort of dirty-realism in slashers and found footage of the 90's/00's to a more exagerated hyper-realism in stuff like this. I think we're in a space where the paranormal's been reintroduced, but in ways that break away from classical hollywood monsters and that challenge the status quo.
If you're like me, the movie's well worth it just to start putting up the red yarn to trace cultural influences and connect the text to others like it. Not to imply it isn't unique, it's just that it comes from an interesting horror linneage that's a little more recent than the vampires in Blood Sucking Bastards [2015].
Would I watch this again? Absolutely. I'll wait to see this at home, but there's enough meat on the bone here for another watch, especially with a friend who's inclined to pick at the text with you, or someone who's a big fan of the youtube material. This is a solid A-, and an interesting addition to the canon of movies based off of youtube horror projects. It's not too gory, it doesn't include any sexual violence, it's quite weird, and it's visually quite pleasing. It gives you a lot to look at, using obfuscation and clarity alternately to draw you in or repulse you. If you have a stomach for horror, I'd strongly recomend it.
