The success of YouTube content creator Markiplier’s Iron Lung has shown that there’s an appeal for niche indie offerings, and another series is following in its footsteps. Backrooms, the A24 horror film adaptation based on Kane Parsons’ viral short films, has unveiled its first trailer, which evokes the unsettling eeriness lurking in various liminal spaces, where something feels just a little off — be it a couch melting into the floor or a differently-shaped door.
“I found something,” narrates Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) in the clip. “I found a place. It’s massive in there and just goes on and on and on. All these rooms — this place builds them. Actually, more like it remembers them, and the more times it remembers something, the less it does.”
Parsons returns to helm the movie from a script by Will Soodik, making the 20-year-old the youngest filmmaker in A24’s history. Kori Adelson, Dan Cohen, Chris Ferguson, Dan Levine, Shawn Levy, and James Wan serve as producers, while Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World), Mark Duplass (The Morning Show), Finn Bennett (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), Lukita Mawxell (Afraid), and Avan Jogia (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccon City) star alongside Ejiofor.
For the uninitiated, the YouTube horror series is inspired by a creepypasta called “The Backrooms” that originated on the forum 4chan in 2019 and was used to describe a photo of an empty HobbyTown. It has racked up more than 190 million views to date and expanded on the basic concept of a liminal space existing outside reality with monsters and a mysterious company researching The Backrooms. The upcoming film will focus on two individuals who find a mysterious door in the basement of a furniture showroom.
Backrooms is slated for theatrical release on 29 May.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
