‘Backrooms’ (2026) Trailer Review: A Promising Adaptation of an Internet Phenomenon

Can this horror movie live up to the hype, or will it get lost in a maze of opportunity?

I’ll be honest, I’ve never understood the hype for The Backrooms. The 2019 internet creepypasta just never really spoke to me. But after watching this trailer, I think I understand it a bit better.

This adaptation of the widely popular liminal space known only as “The Backrooms” comes from director Kane Parsons, who is also the creator of the Backrooms (2022) web series. The series is uploaded to Parsons’ YouTube channel, Kane Pixels, and is composed of various short films centering on the large, never ending series of yellow rooms.

As for the concept itself, The Backrooms has quite the history. The picture itself originates sometime during the 2010s. The image was then posted to 4Chan and in 2019, and a user made a humorous comment about how if you aren’t careful and “noclip [pass through the walls] out of reality,” you’ll find yourself in this yellow maze.

The creepypasta ended up taking off and grew a fanbase that gave the space more depth, as they incorporated levels and room safety statuses to the concept. Some took the concept and ran with it, creating “Poolrooms,” or complex rooms that are filled with indoor pools and water slides. Both The Backrooms and Poolrooms have had numerous adaptations and became a large hit in the 2020s.

Now, as for the trailer itself, I can’t say I’m a big fan of the single note repeating thing that a lot of horror trailers do. It feels overdone and overplayed, but I think this is more a marketing problem than a movie problem. The movie itself looks visually interesting, which is an incredible task considering it’s ultimately just a never ending series of yellow rooms.

We aren’t given much information about the characters from the trailer, and since I’m going into Parsons’ adaptation rather blind, I can’t say if these characters were introduced in the aforementioned short films. However, given the context that the short films were loosely connected, it’s possible that these characters were made for the film specifically.

From what we can gather one of the protagonists is stuck in The Backrooms. We see a crew of people in hazmat suits earlier, so maybe he was a part of the team that went in before? Or perhaps he’s a part of a different crew that’s investigating the dangerous labyrinth.

It also seems that another protagonist is trying to help the other escape from The Backrooms. My assumption is that the two know each other, but one day the person currently stuck in The Backrooms goes missing. The other person investigates what happened to them and discovers their research about The Backrooms. In order to save their friend, the other protagonist must step into The Backrooms themself and find them.

It also appears to keep some of the horror elements that internet users loved about the original creepypasta. There seems to be some supernatural phenomenon happening in there that might be making people slowly lose their sanity. I personally would like it if the creator incorporated some psychological horror aspects as well to help enhance this feeling of being watched by a being you don’t see.

As previously mentioned, the visual look of the movie is striking. I enjoy the bright lighting of the space and the overwhelming yellow that still isn’t too much to look at. The cinematography looks promising as it appears from the trailer that the movie will use a combination of cinematic shots and shots that appear as if they were recorded on an old handheld device.

I can’t say I’m too big on the music as it just sounds kind of generic to me. However, others seem to be really excited about it, especially since this was the music used in the Backrooms web series. I’m sure there will be other homages to the short films within the movie, but I’ll have to report back on that when I watch the series and film.

Overall, the movie looks interesting, but I’m not sure how it’ll do with a general audience. Although the concept of The Backrooms is a big internet hit, there are still those who don’t know much about it (like myself) and even those who have never even heard of it before. I’m sure it’ll take off with the right crowd, but I’m very interested to hear what others experiencing the yellow maze for the first time think of it.

Regardless, Backrooms (2026) looks promising and I’m interested to see how the movie will play out.

Backrooms releases on May 29th, 2026