Backrooms (2026)

Kane Parsons

VANESSA HUANG

May is a bit of a weird month to release a horror movie, but that’s the least weird thing about “Backrooms” (2026). With roots dating back to the creepypasta of the same name first invented in a 4chan thread, “Backrooms” follows Clark and Mary, the former of which relies on alcohol as a coping mechanism in his tenuous marriage and the latter of which still has childhood trauma to unpack despite her job as Clark’s therapist.

Through sleeping on one of the beds of his furniture shop, Clark discovers a wall that he can pass through to the Backrooms, a mazelike liminal space in which reality starts to bend. He ventures deeper inside to explore, bringing his employees to help him (who does that?), and Mary eventually follows suit. In the Backrooms lie “entities,” monsters based on actual people that aren’t quite right—some have too many eyes, and others are too tall to be convincingly human.

As someone who knew next to nothing about the original creepypasta, “Backrooms” was a spooky watch! I used to dream about sneaking under the covers of the beds displayed in Bed Bath & Beyond past closing, but after watching “Backrooms,” that doesn’t sound appealing anymore. If you don’t know the plot of the web series of the same name, it can be a bit confusing, but I would still recommend watching!

“Backrooms” has a healthy mix of jumpscares and psychological horror overall. All in all, let’s just say I’m officially swearing off horror films until Halloween season is over.