Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, in BACKROOMS. Credit: Courtesy of A24
– by Cate Marquis –
What if you went into the lower level of a business and found a doorway into hidden unused rooms? Sometimes old buildings can hold such secrets, unused forgotten rooms or sub-basements, and the temptation to explore is ingrained in human nature, but the backrooms in this film hold other secrets and mysteries, and even dangers.
That hidden rooms are part of the story in director Kane Parsons’ unsettling sci-fi horror drama BACKROOMS is no spoiler, as it is right there in the title. The script by Will Soodik is based on an internet phenomenon, a series of stories about what is in the hidden office rooms hidden under a building, set very specifically in 1990, but you do not really have to have seen any of the internet stories (this writer had not) to appreciate this tale, as it draws on common human experiences of dreams and curiosity. The backrooms look like ordinary 1990s empty offices, although they are not always completely empty, and the way into them is no ordinary doorway. As you travel though them they become less ordinary and rational, containing objects that seem to hold some mysterious meaning.
After opening with a tense, mysterious sequence featuring an unseen explorer in the hidden backrooms, separated from his team, and desperately signally to his home base for rescue and aware of some threat, the film switches to a story set in southern California, about Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the owner of a cheap furniture warehouse store in an old strip mall. Clark’s life is crumbling, a frustrated architect running a failing furniture store, dubbed Captain Clark’s Ottoman Empire, where he is sometimes called on to dress up like a pirate for cheesy TV ads to promote the store. Clark is trapped in an unfulfilling career path, newly separated from his wife, and now seeking help from a therapist, Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve). Mary sells tapes for mediation and does counseling for lost souls seeking a different path in life but she is also haunted by childhood memories of life with her mentally-ill mother.
Kicked out of the house by his wife, Clark sleeps in the furniture showroom, but the store has been dogged by an electrical issue, which causes the lights and power in the store flickers in unpredictable ways after the store is closed for the night. One such power issue sends groggy, grouchy Clark down to the lower level to try to figure it out. There he accidentally discovers a doorway, leading to hidden rooms. The backrooms are painted a shade of yellow that screams 1990s office, and filled with scattered or sometimes piled office furniture of the same era. Clark is both frightened and intrigued by the discovery. Besides the furniture, there are other more mysterious, unsettling things in the backrooms, including things linked to the character we saw at the start of the film.
The film eventually circles back to that unfortunate explorer at the beginning, and his research team exploring the backrooms, led by Phil (Mark Duplass). Two young people, Clark’s assistant manager Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and her film-school boyfriend (Finn Bennett), become part of the story as Clark explores the hidden world under/behind his store.
If you are a fan of the series, all this is catnip but even if you are completely unfamiliar with the internet phenomenon, the backrooms premise can intrigue. Having dreams about finding hidden rooms is a common experience, and in dreams, as in this film, the rooms become more odd and symbolic as you get lost in them.
The strong cast and moving, emotional performances are a main strength of the film, primarily Ejiofor’s emotional portrayal of Clark, a man in pain and haunted by bad choices but prone to blame others. Clark moves back and forth between charming and sympathetic to selfish and unpredictable. Reinsve’s therapist Mary is more emotionally cool, but we see streams of hidden feelings underneath through flashbacks to childhood experiences.
Another strength of the film is it’s eerie, techno-ish soundtrack, which adds to the mounting tensions as the various people find themselves in the backrooms.
The film explores a story-line and both the store owner’s and therapist’s emotional journeys. Those personal stories are set in an unsettling, sad world of lost people and unfulfilled dreams in California, historically a land of dreams, including the dream factory of Hollywood.
The American Dream, and loss of that idea, is a theme running under the storytelling, mostly represented in images in the hidden rooms. Dreams, in the literal and symbolic sense, suffuse everything, and reference to sci-fi and fantasy movies (with a shout-out to NEVERENDING STORY in one scene), misremembered memories, people whose lives are caught in loops, and mental illness and delusion also add an unsettling aspect.
BACKROOMS is tense and unsettling but it is not all mystery and puzzles, as there are dangers in the backrooms, as they explorers discover. There is scary and bloody stuff in this film as well as angst and loss.
Symbolism abounds in BACKROOMS and whether you find that, and all the little puzzles and hints scattered around every half-lit corner, intriguing or tiring will depend on you taste for mysteries and puzzle-solving, and your experience with the internet world the film is based on.
You can appreciate this film even without knowing anything about the online stuff, as is the case with this writer, who only knew that there was an internet series behind it. The story is still accessible to most audiences, at least until the ending, which leaves a few too many unanswered questions for the uninitiated. Those who know the internet stories will be less puzzled, of course, and will find the movie more satisfying.
BACKROOMS opens in theaters on Friday, May 29, 2026.
RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars
