Backrooms (2026) is the rare internet nightmare that survived the jump to a real movie. Kane Parsons—the YouTuber behind the Kane Pixels shorts that made yellow wallpaper and buzzing fluorescents feel like a trap—directs his feature debut from a Will Soodik script, with James Wan among the producers and A24 releasing it. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark, a failed architect running a dying furniture store who finds a doorway in the basement; Renate Reinsve is the therapist who follows him in. Shot for about $10 million, it has grossed roughly $394 million worldwide and become A24’s biggest hit. The Film Buff episode treats it as a concept movie first: the fear of the hallway you weren’t supposed to enter, the room that feels copied wrong, the sense that something is duplicating our world in real time. It works as popcorn horror and as elevated dread. It also explains a little more at the end than a pure liminal-space short ever would—enough to point at a sequel, not always enough to satisfy. This review breaks down why the viral idea scaled, where Wan’s franchise instincts show up around the edges, and whether the feature version still scares you the way those nine-minute videos did.

The Rise of “Backrooms”: A Conceptual Horror Phenomenon and Its Hollywood Success

Summary

The video discusses the movie Backrooms (2026), a horror film rooted in a viral short that captured widespread fear of ominous, labyrinth-like spaces — commonly imagined as endless, eerily empty rooms or hallways. Written by Will Soduk and directed by James Wan, the film expands upon a simple but deeply unsettling concept that resonates universally: the fear of what might lurk just beyond sight in mundane, overlooked spaces. The Backrooms short film’s viral success led to Hollywood acquiring the rights and developing it into a full-length feature with a $10 million budget. This movie, featuring notable actors such as Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, has become one of the most profitable horror films ever, grossing nearly $400 million, demonstrating the genre’s increasing dominance in American cinema.

The narrator praises James Wan’s expertise in building franchises and highlights his mixed track record, citing Aquaman and Saw among his successes while suggesting his Aquaman 2 effort was weaker. The film’s strength lies in its pure conceptual core and fear-inducing atmosphere, rather than in heavy exposition. The story deals with a duplicating, growing alternate reality reflecting our own, hinting at a scientific or experimental origin but offering limited explanation, a choice that the narrator feels makes the film more enigmatic and effective.

Backrooms embodies the modern trend in American horror — a genre less constrained by societal expectations or political correctness, allowing filmmakers creative freedom to explore primal fears and narratives without worrying about mainstream critiques or cultural debates. The film’s success is attributed to its ability to create a relatable protagonist who evokes empathy and tension while delivering a visceral horror experience. The narrator emphasizes the film’s “elevated horror” status, combining a viral concept, strong performances, and a lean budget scaled into massive financial success. Finally, the narrator encourages viewers to watch the movie, a “popcorn hard” thrill ride perfect for mainstream audiences.

Highlights

• 🎥 Backrooms expands a viral short into a concept-driven, $10 million Hollywood film.
• 👻 The core fear taps into universal experiences of mysterious, ominous spaces.
• 💰 The movie grossed $394 million, making it one of the most profitable horror films ever.
• 🎬 James Wan, known for Saw and Aquaman, directs, showing mixed but notable successes.
• 🧠 Horror as a genre is evolving into a creative playground free from mainstream social pressures.
• 🌍 The film explores a duplicating alternate reality theme with minimal explanation for mystery.
• 🍿 Recommended as a highly entertaining, “popcorn” horror experience with broad appeal.

Key Insights

• 🎯 The Power of a Viral Concept: Backrooms illustrates how a simple, relatable fear captured in a viral short can serve as a powerful seed for a scaled Hollywood production. This highlights the growing influence of internet culture in shaping film concepts and greenlighting projects that deeply resonate with broad audiences.
• 🧟‍♂️ Horror’s Unique Position in Modern Cinema: Horror’s relative immunity to sociopolitical critique allows filmmakers to create extremes of psychological and supernatural storytelling free from the constraints typically imposed on dramas, comedies, or action genres. This freedom contributes to horror’s commercial resurgence and its ability to innovate.
• 👨‍🎤 James Wan’s Franchise Mastery and Limitations: Wan’s pedigree in discovering and building franchises (e.g., Conjuring, Saw) brings credibility and audience trust to the film. However, his mixed results, especially with Aquaman 2, suggest that franchise stewardship requires balancing innovation with audience expectations — a challenge in blockbuster filmmaking.
• 🌌 Narrative Ambiguity as a Strength: The film’s choice to offer limited but suggestive explanations about the duplicating reality keeps the mystery alive and invites audience speculation. While some viewers may crave details, this ambiguity enhances the horror by maintaining an unsettling, unknowable atmosphere rather than demystifying it prematurely.
• 👥 Relatable Protagonists Enhance Engagement: By centering on an everyman figure—someone vulnerable and “rootable for”—the film makes the abstract terror more personal and immediate. Empathy drives viewer investment, turning conceptual horror into a more emotional experience.
• 💵 Low-Budget High-Return Model: With a modest $10 million production cost against a massive $394 million gross, Backrooms epitomizes how well-executed horror can yield extraordinary profitability, attracting more investment into similar genre films. This economic model encourages filmmakers to harness innovative ideas over expensive spectacle alone.
• 🎭 Audience Conversation and Cultural Impact: The viral nature of the Backrooms story and film leads to active audience discussion and social engagement post-viewing. This communal conversation reflects a broader trend where horror movies thrive not only on scares but on shared cultural experiences and viral word-of-mouth, enhancing their visibility and success.

This analysis reveals Backrooms as a paradigm of modern horror filmmaking: rooted in a simple but powerful idea, creatively free, entrepreneurially smart, and deeply connected to both internet culture and cinematic tradition. The film’s success reinforces horror’s standing as an evergreen and evolving genre where pure concept and audience engagement can lead to blockbuster outcomes.

Here is the transcript of the Backrooms (2026) movie review podcast of AKAPAD’s The Film Buff episode.

00:00:01
Quiet on the set. >> Camera speed, sound production, take one. >> Action. >> Here we go, James Wan, aka Tyler. The wild thing is I I thought we already recorded, I thought we already dropped this episode, but today I’m just too busy. The world’s just whizzing by me. I I feel like if when when I jump I can feel the globe spinning underneath me. 2026 backrooms written by and we’re we’re we’re going with the writer first because in my view this is a concept movie and

00:00:41
the writer is magnified here, Will Soduk. Fantastic writer. I mean this this movie sells a concept that was almost right it like it’s a we have an idea that became a concept for this movie and the idea is a short film, it went viral. It’s fear inducing and it taps into a lot of moments that I think we’ve all had, which is we’re in a dark area, we’re maybe in a warehouse. My mother used to work in the school. And I used to go there at night. And you would always hit those like dark

00:01:24
hallways and some of the doors would be unlocked and then you can you can wander in them. And there’s always a little bit of that fear of just like what’s slightly not what’s around the corner, but what’s slightly around the corner. So this short film that really like fear inducing, it goes viral. Of course Hollywood’s going to come knocking. They they make a movie and we get James Wan involved. And we we we praise James Wan, we love James Wan on the Film Buff Podcast. In my view, uh he has made the greatest

00:01:59
Aquaman movie anything ever. We attribute Saw to him. Uh was it Conjuring? It it his his knack for developing and discovering franchises is unmatched. Uh I did If if he directed Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom, that might be his his worst effort like over overall even some of the Conjuring spin-offs cuz I like the non-spin-offs. I like the Annabelle stuff. I need a little bit of coffee. I’m just trying to get my day going. AKA Powders. But yeah, if you’re new here, I am Peter A. DeLuca, obsessive film freak, coming

00:02:43
to you Say with me from Philadelphia, PA. Well, I guess if you’re new, you all know that intro. Not far from City Hall. I’ve been playing volleyball. I signed up early summer for a volleyball league. And I’m only telling you that because the last maybe six Tuesdays, cuz we play on Tuesday. We go to a park. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s about 45 teams, by the way. We go to a park. There’s three zones uh for games like time zones. It has rained. Six of the last or five of the last six

00:03:26
Tuesdays. So, we show up for a new season last time. We had the the last season like got dragged through the finish line. We all show up at 8:00. 5:00 teams played, 7:00 teams played. We show up for 8:00. 8:00 gets gets rained out. >> [snorts and laughter] >> So, that’s what I’ve been dealing with that this summer. But let let let’s get back to this cuz I feel feel this is a very important movie. And this movie uh like obsession falls within an observation that we we had years ago here. A And and by we, I

00:04:04
mean I. American horror is running American film. Horror has become the category and it’s because it’s it’s anti uh criticism. You know that there’s no social pressure. There’s you you can you don’t have to fall into the societal reading and standards uh when you make a horror movie, it can be high and low. It can even be woke and and there’s some great woke ones out there, too, but it can be all of these things or it cannot. See, we’re dealing with a lot of this drama

00:04:46
that came up with the Green Lantern episode 3 where uh yeah, they they make comments about African-American life in America and the whole world just like goes crazy. Uh it goes crazy for defending the comments and goes crazy for uh yeah, people just saying, “Well, do do we need that in this?” because it felt it it felt like it was wedged in. It took you out out of the show. And we call that the American experience. When you make something action, when you make even a comedy, when you make a

00:05:20
drama, you roll in more of the social because you’re you’re trying to sculpt what you’re making to a general audience. So, it’s susceptible to the whims of the time. But horror is the exception to all of this. And even even horror, even the let’s just say some critics of that Green Lantern episode 3, uh there’s concessions they would make within the horror movie uh if it’s the same like type of content type of comment, type of dialogue. It’s It’s hilarious, but to me, horror is It’s

00:05:56
It’s It’s become the true filmmakers’ playground. And we’re seeing it here with Cain Parsons. The guy makes a short film. He gets lucky. The The short film goes to the moon. And then we get a budget, right? We get a good budget here cuz we have We have a good cast. I can never pronounce this guy’s name. Chiwetel uh Ejiofor. Oh. He’s been in a million things. I love him. We have Renate Reinsve. These names are And then we get uh Mark David Duplass, who’s uh a again uh a horror guy

00:06:43
himself. Right? Like, what’s that like what uh There’s like a web micro series. It’s not called Silly, is it? Wait, let me see here. I’m trying to find it. If I don’t find it, look it up. Uh I He’s been in so much, but I I discovered him on The League, the Fox FX uh comedy, which is one of the The League is is one of the funniest shows ever put on television. Watching The League and watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But I didn’t Yeah. I cannot find Yeah, he’s It’s like a

00:07:24
weird uh like hard It’s on uh AMC. Look, and we we’re losing track here, but it’s it’s it’s on AMC. And he plays like this serial killer. Let me see here. It’s not jumping out. And he’s he’s just so busy. He’s been a part of so many things. And I don’t know do we go through No, I got moving on. So, what is this movie? Like how do we get a movie from the concept, right? The concept is backrooms. What could be around the corner? And if it starts coming for you, like

00:08:07
well, you don’t >> [snorts] >> This movie evolves into a prologue for a hell of a sequel. Where we get into the details and a little bit of the explanation. We have some of the explanation at the end in this movie. Now, it’s not what I was expecting from my perspective from the film buff. It’s not really what I would call satisfying. But it is curious and it is complete. And I do feel for the general audience, uh it’s it’s there. You want a little bit of an explanation

00:08:41
to what we experience while watching this movie. And it’s a little bit tough to narrow it down. We’re dealing with a a duplicate reality that’s growing, uh you know, in real time like within the movie. And it’s trying to copy this reality. That’s my best explanation. It’s leaning towards like a a scientific experiment or a you know, something that went wrong. That’s fine. Do we get too much of an explanation? Uh I would say yes. I think we needed a very little explanation.

00:09:32
Now, it could be explanation towards a sequel, which would validate what we get at the end of this movie. But this movie’s great. This movie’s a lot of fun. Uh I just feel uh enlightened that the the concept got so fully realized. We got to talk about it. This movie cost $10 million, by the way. I mean, it This is the power of Hollywood or A24. Cuz it really is the the two leads in this movie. Made Made for $10 million makes $394 million. This is one of the most profitable films in film history.

00:10:21
And I think what the audience goes through in this movie is viral. It’s conversational. You want to know what your friends think as soon as you’re you’re you’re done seeing it. Uh it is elevated horror. And it’s elevated horror because, like I said, it taps into something primal. And to get a longer version of that short film, and we get a main character. We get We get someone that we’re kind of like rooting with. We get someone that we’re behind. You know, like we we kind want this guy

00:10:55
to do well. He seems like a good person. And there’s a little bit of uh this guy doesn’t have a pot to piss in or window to throw it out of. And he’s in angst. So, we get We get a a title character that the audience immediately gets behind. And the weirdness of it all, right? Cuz we know tragedy will happen. Uh we feel less for the tragedy. And there there’s a a subtle manipulation there that I feel like is uh artful. But yeah, AK Powers, you cannot miss the back rooms. I I know it’s a paid to

00:11:35
play. It’s on digital, but you have to pay to rent the movie, you have to pay to either watch it. It did gangbusters in theaters. It is a true popcorn hard movie. Uh last night I was I was watching a movie called The Passenger. Uh literally munched a giant bucket of popcorn. I got my I have this one Avengers Endgame popcorn bucket that holds about five microwaveable popcorn bags. I have uh I have a mean I have means to uh pop my own popcorn. And I and I just don’t. I just I get into the rhythm of microwaving

00:12:13
bags and just dumping them into a vessel. But yeah, AKA Padders, get yourself some popcorn, pay some money, give this movie your time. It’s the best thing you can do. I love you. For the Film Buff, marching towards uh we’re I think we’re going to do a countdown soon. Uh something uh to where we kind of maybe start renumbering some some of the episodes cuz we are marching towards uh episode 1,300. Isn’t that amazing? I love you guys. Rock and roll. Okay, that’s a wrap. >> [applause]

Backrooms (2026) proves the Kane Pixels shorts were never just a meme. Parsons and Soodik turn endless empty rooms into a feature that has a face you can root for (Ejiofor’s Clark), a second lead who can carry the dread (Reinsve), and a $10 million budget that returned close to $400 million. That math is why horror is eating American film right now: a primal idea, a tight runtime, and almost no obligation to sand the edges for a general-audience lecture. The movie is strongest when it stays in the maze—the light, the carpet, the copy of reality that keeps growing. It is weaker when it starts answering the question the shorts were smart enough to leave hanging. Still, as a first feature from a 20-year-old who already knew how this world should look and sound, it is a complete, conversational, “call your friends after” horror movie. If you came for the viral short, the film is the longer version plus a prologue for whatever comes next. Watch it, then come back to the Film Buff episode and say whether you wanted more explanation—or whether the rooms should have stayed empty.

PETER A DELUCA AKAPD

AKAPAD is a versatile thinker known across Philadelphia, Europe, and even in the vast Multiverse as The Electic One. By day, he excels as an IT Mastermind, assisting individuals, both big and small, with a wide range of simple and complex solutions. In contrast, he is also a talented illustrator, a passionate comic book enthusiast, a creative content creator, and an active live streamer. Additionally, his podcast, “AKAPAD The Film Buff Podcast,” boasts an impressive catalog of over 500 episodes available on nearly every major platform.