Movie of the Week
‘Backrooms’ horror escapes YouTube for cinemas
A new A24 production adapts a hit internet series into a movie from the same creator, Kane Parsons.
A new sci-fi horror movie, Backrooms, follows a therapist’s expedition into an unknown dimension beyond reality to save a patient.
The R-rated film is screening in Ster-Kinekor cinemas and Nu Metro theatres from today (29 May 2026). The story adapts a viral internet series created by YouTuber Kane Parsons through his Kane Pixels channel. Parsons directs the film for independent studio A24, becoming the youngest director to work with the company at 20 years old.
The original YouTube series expanded on the Backrooms internet urban legend, which emerged in online posts describing an endless maze of empty office spaces inhabited by distorted creatures and accessed by noclipping (glitching) out of reality. The concept evolved into an online mythos featuring interconnected levels, hostile entities, and isolated survivor groups.
Parsons adapted the concept into a found-footage YouTube series in 2022. The videos gained millions of views for their psychological tension built around liminal environments, isolation, and distorted spaces.
The A24 production stars Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) as therapist Mary alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) as her patient, Clark. The cast includes Mark Duplass (Creep) in an undisclosed role.
A24 constructed more than 30,000 square feet of physical Backrooms sets to recreate the maze-like yellow environments associated with the online series.
