Backrooms (2026)

At a glance

Director	Kane Parsons
Release year	2026
Runtime	110 minutes
Genre	Psychological horror, science fiction
Starring	Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell

Plot

Clark, a furniture-store owner and a failed architect, is in treatment with Dr. Mary Kline. He goes missing into a place that should not be there: yellow rooms, buzzing lights, damp carpet, and a geometry that does not return you to the door you used. Mary goes after him. The place is the Backrooms, a dimension the film treats as a found space rather than a dream.

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Async, a research outfit, is already inside. Phil is one of their scientists. Kat, who works for Clark, and her boyfriend Bobby are pulled into the same problem. Something in the rooms wears a version of Clark’s face. The film is about getting people out, and about an organization that would rather map the place than close it. The plot stays with the missing patient and the woman who treats him. It does not stop to explain the creepypasta to the audience.

Production

Kane Parsons directed it, his first feature, and co-scored it. He had already made the Backrooms web series that turned the old creepypasta into a found-footage location with a company exploring it. Will Soodik wrote the script. A24 released it, with producers including James Wan, Shawn Levy, and Osgood Perkins. It premiered at the Aero Theatre on May 7, 2026, and opened in the United States on May 29. The reported budget was about $10 million. The worldwide gross passed $400 million.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark. Renate Reinsve plays Mary. Mark Duplass plays Phil. Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell play Bobby and Kat. The rooms are the design problem: a set that has to feel endless and cheap at the same time. Parsons came from online video, not from a studio apprenticeship. The film is the rare internet horror property that kept the original maker as director.

Cast

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark
Renate Reinsve as Dr. Mary Kline
Mark Duplass as Phil
Finn Bennett as Robert “Bobby” Franklin
Lukita Maxwell as Kathrine “Kat” Taylor
Avan Jogia as Naren Warne

Trivia

Parsons directed the film and the web series it adapts. The creepypasta is older than both.
The yellow rooms and the fluorescent hum are the whole visual idea. The film does not replace them with a castle.
James Wan is a producer, not the director.
The reported budget was about $10 million. The gross was in the hundreds of millions.
A figure in the rooms wears Clark’s face. The film treats that as an inhabitant, not a twist subtitle.
Runtime is 110 minutes. A shorter listing has circulated; the feature cut is the longer one.