Backrooms reviews: What have critics made of creepy YouTube series turned big screen horror film

EntertainmentMovie
27 May 2026 • 9:56 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

Backrooms reviews: What have critics made of creepy YouTube series turned big screen horror film

  • YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Kane Parsons has released his feature film Backrooms, an adaptation of his viral video series, which has become a cult hit on YouTube.
  • The film, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve and Mark Duplass, is originally based on a 4chan forum post which became an urban legend about a man trapped in an unsettling, labyrinthine office space.
  • Critical reception for "Backrooms" has been largely positive, with the film currently holding a 79 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 74/100 on Metacritic, praised for its atmospheric horror, visual style, and disturbing conceptual elements.
  • The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey wrote in her four-star review that the film was “mesmeric and wildly unique in a way I suspect will stand the test of time.” Meanwhile, The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it an “icily brilliant and genuinely disturbing conceptual horror film”.
  • The Associated Press’s Jake Coyle wasn’t as praiseworthy, complaining that “a movie with so many doors ultimately can't find the right one”. In Empire, Jamie Graham noted that the film “is sure to spark endless debate and interpretations among those who aren’t bored silly by it.”

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