A24 Delivers Perfect First Trailer for Their YouTube Viral Horror Sensation Adaptation

YouTube has become a hotbed for groundbreaking, up-and-coming horror visionaries. Immediately, Danny and Michael Philippou come to mind for their breakout hit Talk to Me and last year's acclaimed follow-up, Bring Her Back, while, more recently, Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach made waves at the box office this year with his ambitious adaptation of the indie game Iron Lung. However, plenty of creatives have just uploaded their work directly to the video-sharing giant and garnered significant followings for it. That includes Remy Abode with his analog horror series Gemini Home Entertainment, Alex Kister with The Mandela Catalogue, and Dylan Clark with his short Portrait of God, which is now being made into a feature with help from producers Sam Raimi and Jordan Peele.

Among the biggest success stories, however, has been Kane Pixels, aka Kane Parsons, the creator of the Backrooms web series, inspired by the original creepypasta and accompanying photo. Backrooms began back in 2022, and the first episode alone has since accrued over 73 million views on YouTube, kicking off a series of 22 more short films exploring the titular complex located just outside the bounds of reality. Each installment largely revolves around the organization Async, as they try to study the Backrooms and document the anomalies within, all as more people continue to disappear within its labyrinthine structure. In just under two months, the series will next expand to the big screen under Parsons' direction, and A24 has released a harrowing new trailer to pull back the curtain on the much-anticipated project.

So far, A24's adaptation has been largely shrouded in mystery, with the synopsis only revealing that the plot will revolve around what happens after "a strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom." The first teaser, too, only showed the many increasingly surreal, liminal layers of the complex while someone tries to describe what they found inside the endless, shifting halls of yellow walls and buzzing fluorescent lights. This new footage finally delves into the sheer horror of this titanic, inexplicable facility that awaits those who no-clip through the bounds of reality. It's a source of both intrigue and overwhelming terror, filled with sights and threats beyond human comprehension.

'Backrooms' Boasts a Team of Horror Afficionados

For his first foray into theaters, Parsons had some help from one of the best in the business, James Wan, to make Backrooms a reality. The Saw writer-director's Atomic Monster banner produced the film, alongside Chernin Entertainment, and Shawn Levy's 21 Laps Entertainment, while Ash vs. Evil Dead writer Will Soodik penned the script. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve lead a talented cast that also features Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Avan Jogia. During production, Duplass had full confidence in Parsons' hand behind the camera, despite him being the youngest director in A24 history. In an interview with Collider's Perri Nemiroff last year for The Creep Tapes, he marveled at the filmmaker's mentality and his expansive ideas for this next chapter of his beloved series.

"I can’t say anything about the story, and I really do want to protect it for Kane. His mind is a backroom, and a beautiful place, a beautiful, liminal space that is somehow not human and beyond all of us. But what I will say is that I have always fancied myself someone who loves to mentor young filmmakers and be around them, and I think that’s part of the reason why I got that gig was thinking, 'You know what? Kane is 19 and he’s directing a huge studio movie for the first time. It’d probably be good to have Mark around, who’s really good at mentoring people,' you know? And I was fully ready to do that, and got there, and I was like, 'This guy is so in charge and knows every detail down to the last thing.' He was so patient and good with the actors, with us. It was so impressive to watch him command that set in a lovely and humble way. So, look, I don’t know how it’s all going to come together. We’re going to have to see. But I feel very, very comfortable in his hands."

Backrooms premieres in theaters on May 29. Check out the trailer in the player above.