A24 Reveals Horror Movie Backrooms From 20-Year-Old Director Kane Parsons In New Trailer

A24 is bringing Internet horror to the big screen with a new trailer for Backrooms.

Featuring one of the youngest directors ever to work with A24, Backrooms is based on the web series created by Kane Parsons, who also directs the movie adaptation. Parsons began work on his horror series under the username Kane Pixels in 2022. The series follows an organization investigating the titular Backrooms, endless hallways and rooms seemingly in another dimension, housing cryptic secrets.

Now, A24 has released a new and truly unsettling trailer for Backrooms. The trailer reveals a story following a furniture store owner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovering an entry point into the Backrooms in a wall of his building. He speaks to his therapist (Renate Reinsve) about the location, which seemingly includes objects from across different periods of time.

The trailer continues by showcasing Ejiofor and a group of people filming in the Backrooms, discovering unseen threats in the process. Reinsve's character is also promised to get directly involved, stepping through Ejiofor's door into the location, seemingly to find him. However, she's also seen bloodied in a hallway, promising major terrors yet to come.

Check out the full trailer for The Backrooms below:

The History Of The Backrooms Explained

The Backrooms began as an Internet urban legend in 2019, when an anonymous user on 4chan posted an image of what seemed like endlessly empty rooms made up of dividing walls and carpeting. The post included claims that the Backrooms are a dimension between dimensions accessed by falling (or no-clipping) through reality, typically on accident.

Since then, the Internet has offered a plethora of interpretations for the Backrooms, from the location being an unsettling, empty maze, to one of various layers that include multiple unexplained creatures living in it. Parsons' web series is the most popular interpretation, which includes both unsettling emptiness and creatures stalking those who enter the domain.

The 2026 horror movie promises an expansion of this lore through the lens of someone who accidentally discovers an opening to the dimension. In addition to Ejiofor and Reinsve, the trailer shows people in various hazmat suits, reminiscent of those from Parsons' web series. It's unclear how the movie will fit into its canon storyline, if at all.

Why Backrooms Is A Perfect Follow-Up To The Original Web Series

The setting of Backrooms is ripe for exploration, especially in a way that only a movie can provide. Parsons' web series often uses found footage and a cryptic presentation that makes viewers part of the experience, having to puzzle out elements of what's going on. In movie form, though, these elements can be laid out in a more concrete, direct way.

It also gives the concept a bigger budget and more room to toy with the ideas that made the original so compelling in the first place. While the movie doesn't promise any answers, which could impede the mystery the Backrooms rely upon, it does indicate a terrifying story that might tie into some of the established lore of the original Internet series.

Since Backrooms is only two months from release, it's unclear if more about the film will be revealed prior to its theatrical debut on May 29. But, given the layered mystery already present in the source material, it will likely benefit from keeping its cards close to its chest.