Backrooms (film): one of the most thought-provoking movies I've seen in a while

This has been a pretty good year for smaller and independent films as we have had several breakout films that were made for very little money that ended up doing fantastic at the box office while at the same time Hollywood studios continue to do what they have always done which is to pump out the same formulaic superhero films that are both predictable and a bit boring.

I was recommended Backrooms by a friend and honestly, I had more questions than answers after I was done with it and I will do my best to not spoil things in this review.

However, if you want to see this movie totally blind and not knowing anything about it, I think this is the best way to see it an just know that I think you should do exactly that.

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I found it quite funny to discover that the inspiration for this film was as follows.

"Backrooms is a fictional, extradimensional horror concept originating from a 2019 imageboard post on 4chan"

Well isn't that something?

This movie did have a slightly higher budget than the other breakout indie films of the year with $10 million but the global return is currently sitting at close to $350 million and well, that is one hell of an ROI.

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There are a lot of things that make this film really impressive but to me one of the major things was that it is made very creepy by some creative camera-work with some rather normal looking things. To me, it looks like worn down department stores of a bygone era.

The flickering lights, the very boring looking walls and discarded worn out furniture, this all is much more terrifying than a bunch of CGI monsters chasing after the heroes.

The story is very open to interpretation but we spend most of our time getting to know "Clark" who is a failed architect that now manages a cheap furniture story who is quite depressed at the various turns that his life has taken. He is rather humiliated by his own advertisements where he dresses up as a pirate to make short commercials for a store that he desperately wants to have succeed as the bills keep rolling in but he has too few customers.

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Then one day he discovers a secret entrance to some "backrooms" in the basement of his store that don't make any sense and seem to take on a life of their own. I wont spoil what goes on down there but they do a magnificent job of creating tension and dread in the mind of the viewer despite the fact that the enemy of our hero is the rooms itself.

According to the film's own notes, the movie was filmed in Vancouver with extensive practical sets, meaning that most of the rooms that you see in this film, are actually there and are not CGI. Some of them quite obviously are CGI, but that is ok because it is used sparingly.

The best thing to me in this film is something that has the internet a bit split about whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. Once you have watched the entire film, you don't really have a conclusive idea about what actually happened but all you know is that you have a sense of rather scary dread that is going to surround all of your own theories about what you just watched. I know that I have had several quite long discussions with people that have seen the movie already and most of us have gone back to watch at least parts of it again several times.

on your first watch you will almost certainly be confused but you will also feel afraid and if you are like me, you will be quite wonderfully entertained.

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It is difficult for me to explain, especially without accidentally including spoilers, why this movie is good but I do know that I found it really unsettling and I can't really even explain why. There is something about the mix of mundane but creepy scenery combined with what I consider to be excellent sound and music that makes this film something that most people are going to ponder for a very long time.

There are already dozens of theories on YouTube and other places that attempt to explain the movie and some of the explanations are nearly as long as the movie is. That is a serious level of thought that has gone into attempting to explain a movie in a way that can be convincing. There are tons of theories and thus far anyway, none of them have been confirmed or denied by the creators of the movie.

Should I watch it?

While I definitely recommend this movie and it is one of the only films of 2026 that I can highly recommend I do want to be completely honest and say that your ability to enjoy this movie is going to be based a great deal on what kind of person you are. If you need your stories to be extremely clear and to have a definitive conclusion after you have watched it, you are not going to enjoy this. My own mother is someone who is like this and she was incapable of enjoying the movie Snatch because she couldn't get past the fact that you actually aren't suppose to understand "Mickey", who is wonderfully played by Brad Pitt.

She did not even make it through Backrooms despite my recommendation because she requires the story to make complete sense while it is going on. This movie isn't even a complete story and a lot of what is going on has some big blank spaces that you are going to have to fill in with your own opinions.

I love this because it encouraged dialogue between myself and my friends that a "normal" movie couldn't possibly create. If you are like me you will likely watch it more than once and be looking for "Easter eggs" on your second, or third time through the film.

It's terrifying but could also be considered frustrating to many because it is, I believe, the entire point of the film to not be conclusive, just like the backrooms themselves are not conclusive.

It's a yes from me dawg, but I would totally understand why certain other people would determine that they don't like it.

_{at the moment the only way to legally watch this film is to catch it at the few remaining theaters that are still playing it, or by renting it on VOD from many providers including Amazon and AppleTV. It is not on Netflix and is unlikely to ever get there}