With the Backrooms Movie, a 20-Year-Old YouTube Creator Expands Into Hollywood Directing

Backrooms hit theaters on May 29, 2026. It's now available to rent or buy digitally and will be coming to HBO Max on September 25. It’s one thing to go from the small to the big screen, but it’s a whole other thing to do it with a built-in fanbase ready to devour whatever comes next. The reputation of the Backrooms precedes it, and with good reason, but now the question is: Can the A24-backed feature film live up to the promise of Kane Parsons’ original YouTube series? Thankfully, I’m here to tell you that the filmmaker has without a doubt got the stuff, with instincts far beyond that of a budding 20-year-old artist. Parsons already had four years of crafting this story under his belt, and that has turned him into a young master, with this story growing into a liminal masterpiece. Backrooms is a truly terrifying cinematic rabbit hole that takes its audience down a twisted and dread-filled path as cerebral in its horror as it is aesthetically pleasing in its design. The movie focuses on Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Clark, who finds an entrance to the Backrooms (via what fans will know as a null zone) in a wall in the basement of his furniture store. The scene is set immediately: This place is