Backrooms Review
Studio: A24
Release Date: May 29, 2026
Runtime: 1hr 50m
Director: Kane Parsons
A24 did something special this summer. The studio released not one, but two above-average horror films in a genre that demands more than profit. Horror needs an audience that leaves the theater still thinking. Backrooms delivers exactly that.
I first caught the trailer before Obsession, and the concept grabbed me immediately. It had just enough mystery and just enough restraint to make me want to see it. I absolutely loved Obsession, and while both films helped make this summer feel exciting for horror again, they are completely different experiences. Different intentions, different fears, and different reasons for working. Comparing them too much would not really do either one justice.
Backrooms opens like recovered footage, and the found-footage framing works better here than I’ve seen in the past. Quarantine from 2008 came to mind almost immediately. I have never been the biggest fan of the style, especially after Cloverfield practically made me motion sick, but Backrooms handles it with discipline. The camera work builds unease without calling too much attention to itself. It earns the format.
What is interesting is that Backrooms does not really feel like a traditional horror movie, even though it technically is one. This is not a film built on monsters, blood, or cheap jump scares. It plays closer to a suspense mystery with horror elements embedded in it. The real fear does not come from what is in the rooms. It comes from the rooms themselves. The endlessness. The wrong geometry. The silence that feels like it is watching you. When the film lets the environment be the threat, it is genuinely unsettling.
The setting is excellent. The atmosphere is tense and consistent. The cinematography earns its moments. The performances work. I cared about the characters and stayed interested in their story, but the world around them was more compelling than the characters themselves. That is both the film’s greatest strength and one of its biggest limitations. The mystery of the Backrooms is so strong that the human drama occasionally feels like it is standing in the shadow of the environment.
There are stretches that some viewers will find slow, and a handful of moments push into over-the-top territory. Not every scene hits. Some ideas feel like a stretch. But Backrooms kept me watching, kept me curious, and kept me theorizing. That matters. Even when it is not being scary, it is interesting. That is harder to pull off than most horror films realize.
As I’ve mentioned before, the best compliment I can give any movie is that it followed me home. Backrooms did. I was still piecing together motivations, questioning certain details, and building theories after I left the theater. That kind of lingering conspiracy-theory fuel is a huge part of what makes the film fun to talk about, and it is exactly the kind of ingredient that can turn a good horror movie into a word-of-mouth one.
Backrooms is not groundbreaking from top to bottom, and it does not pretend to be. But the concept is fresh, the execution is strong for the most part, and the atmosphere does an enormous amount of heavy lifting in the way good genre filmmaking should. It is the kind of movie you can be happy you saw, even if it does not completely blow you away.
It is also worth acknowledging what this film represents alongside Obsession: proof that audiences are still hungry for original ideas and different theatrical experiences. Horror has always been the genre most willing to take risks. This summer felt like a reminder of that. Movies seem to be heading in the right direction again, and I am here for it.
Backrooms will not top every horror list this year, but it absolutely earns its place in the conversation.
