# Backrooms (2026) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies, documentary-bio\ **Created:** [June 2, 2026, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562 "2026-06-02T13:32:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/1 "2026-06-02T13:32:55Z")
Has anybody else seen the recently released documentary about Lumon Industries’ original severed floor, before they built their newest one? Apparently they didn’t clean everything out and they left behind a few stragglers. Seriously, the movie ranks in my top 5 list of creepiest movie concepts that I’ve ever seen. It had a blockbuster opening weekend, for a movie that cost $10 million to make: - Opening weekend box office - $81million domestically, $118 million globally - Youngest director - Parsons (20) - to helm a #1 grossing movie - Best opening for an A24 movie - Highest R rated opening for 2026, Top 15 in history - Biggest opening for an original horror movie EVER I thought is was good…and an original concept…but not great. I liked that it created so many questions and I still don’t feel like they were all answered. Two other creepier movies that are in my top 5 are: The Lobster (2015) with Colin Farrell Tusk (2014) - Kevin Smith directed ---
**Author:** ![Meatwater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meatwater/32/20074_2.png) [@Meatwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatwater)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/2 "2026-06-02T14:02:26Z")
I do want to see it. It’s the kinda creepy stuff I enjoy, but now I need to know… Is this actually a tie-in with Severance? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/3 "2026-06-02T14:14:44Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Seriously, the movie ranks in my top 5 list of creepiest movie concepts that I’ve ever seen. It had a blockbuster opening weekend, for a movie that cost $10 million to make: I have not seen this movie (nor do I intend to) but the director is only twenty years old and this is his first film. It’s quite an impressive achievement. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/4 "2026-06-02T14:26:11Z")
> [@Meatwater](#): > > Is this actually a tie-in with Severance? No, but the entire time I was watching, that’s what I kept thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/5 "2026-06-02T14:29:33Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > the director is only twenty years old and this is his first film. It’s quite an impressive achievement. > [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Youngest director - Parsons (20) - to helm a #1 grossing movie He broke that record by several years. Josh Trank was 27 when his movie Chronicle (2012) hit #1. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/6 "2026-06-02T15:02:56Z")
To copy what I said elsewhere: > [@Movies you've seen recently (Part 2)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5637): > > I’m not the horror fan my daughter is as I don’t find jumpscares and excessive gore fun to watch per se, but good psychological horror will suit me well. And this is some very good psychological horror indeed. > > Okay, yes, it can be seen as a hamhanded metaphor for AI and yes, it ends somewhat abruptly. But the visuals - oh man, the visuals are _deeply_ unsettling throughout. Every room, every space is either small and cluttered and claustrophobic or oppressively big and empty. Nowhere is comfortable, nowhere is safe. There are a few jumpscares and a little gore but it’s the long, long traverses of the Backrooms that will wear your nerves raw. The moments when action happens are almost a relief after that. One can argue that there isn’t much plot to this film but honestly, the direction and set design are amazingly good. The word I keep coming back to is “unsettling”. The whole film is unsettling. Even when we’re not in the Backrooms, the rooms and people encountered are all “off”, and it becomes increasingly difficult to see where the line between reality and the other world is drawn. For example, when Mary comes up the stairs at the end into the showroom, is that the _real_ showroom or a copy? I couldn’t tell. In short, I really liked it. And I think it’s been deliberately teed up for potential sequels. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/7 "2026-06-02T16:10:34Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > For example, when Mary comes up the stairs at the end into the showroom, is that the _real_ showroom or a copy? I couldn’t tell. She’s still in the Backrooms. The showroom door is bricked up and she can’t get out the front. She has to squeeze through the tiny opening between the walls to finally get out. Yeah, definitely a creepy unsettling film. IMO where the film is at its lowest is in the actual _story_ parts, when they are outside the rooms. All the psychologist stuff. But everything inside the Backrooms is great. I would have liked more of the found-footage aspect. I also wish we knew more about how long Clark was in there exploring and going crazy and how he “tamed” the copies he found. He’s being chased and then suddenly it’s an undetermined time later and he’s got tons of rooms mapped and _eats_ the copies. What. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/8 "2026-06-02T16:19:26Z")
Is she, though? They’re not bricked-up - there are concrete barriers outside of them preventing exit. Which A-Sync would have done to prevent any of the creatures it was trying to summon from getting out. And the barrier she squeezed through was likewise put there by the lab techs. They had previously blocked off areas within the Backrooms as we’d seen. None of the signs I could see in the showroom were wrong or backwards in the brief shots of them. And while this means she would have exited the Backrooms into the store basement through a new door, we’re told that new doors are opening all over the place. I’m just saying. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/9 "2026-06-02T16:35:16Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > _eats_ the copies I understand this from a cinematic metaphorical perspective but the minute he revealed that, I turned to my daughter and said “How exactly did he find that out?” Creepy in a whole different way. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/10 "2026-06-02T16:59:26Z")
> [@Meatwater](#): > > I do want to see it. It’s the kinda creepy stuff I enjoy, but now I need to know… Is this actually a tie-in with Severance? It is a movie based on a thread at 4chan. > **[The Backrooms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Backrooms)** > > The Backrooms are a fictional location invented in a 2019 thread on the imageboard website 4chan. The Backrooms are usually portrayed as an impossibly large extradimensional complex of empty rooms, accessed by exiting reality. They are one of the best known examples of the liminal space aesthetic. > Internet users have expanded on the concept of the Backrooms, introducing concepts such as "levels", layers of the Backrooms that are interconnected; and "entities", hostile creatures that inhabit... I wonder when an SDMB thread will be made into a movie? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/11 "2026-06-03T01:15:55Z")
Possible, though having just seen the film for a second time tonight this is how I see it. When Mary comes up from the staircase into the ceiling and crawls up into the furniture store lower level, that’s still in the backrooms. All of the stuff that Clark has been doing on that level, the whiteboard, the taped door, the POTS sign he took, are not there. The furniture store Mary goes into is a copy that is connected to the Async research facility through a narrow passage between the walls. That’s how the scientists were entering and why they set up their gas machines there. That’s why when Mark Duplass sees Clark in the commercial he is so shocked because it’s the man he saw on the video in the furniture store backrooms that he has seen a copy of. He asks Mary “How did you get _here_?” Meaning into their facility. If that store was the real one then he would not have known that she was in the backrooms and want to get all the information on what she saw while inside. At the very end we see new rooms the backrooms has created which include a copy of the housing development sign by Mary’s old house, Mary’s book cover, and missing posters, all with all the text correct. So the signs in the store being right doesn’t mean it’s real. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/12 "2026-06-03T01:58:19Z")
4chan is, unfortunately, pretty influential. Does the SDMB have any reach whatsoever? I’m very mildly familiar with the source material and liminal games/horror in general - I personally don’t get them, but I have non-zero interest in this movie. Low enough that I’m fine waiting for streaming if it doesn’t demand to be seen on the big screen. Those who have seen it, what do you think? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/13 "2026-06-03T05:12:15Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > 4chan is, unfortunately, pretty influential. Does the SDMB have any reach whatsoever? More importantly, do we have any teen-aged prodigy film directors? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/14 "2026-06-03T06:39:41Z")
Fair enough. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/15 "2026-06-05T07:22:48Z")
Just saw it and loved it… but not sure WHY! 😃 It was really well written, directed, edited, acted, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/16 "2026-06-05T19:44:42Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I wonder when an SDMB thread will be made into a movie? You’re living in it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2026, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/17 "2026-06-12T20:21:42Z")
In the last 24 hours since seeing this film, I have pretty much stopped caring about getting answers for all of the questions I had…except one. What are the copies made out of? Mashed potatoes? Angel food? Marshmallow? A great movie if you don’t insist on explanations for everything presented. When people say they love a mystery they usually mean they like to see one solved. This ain’t that kind of movie. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2026, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/18 "2026-06-13T01:16:11Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > What are the copies made out of? Mashed potatoes? Angel food? Marshmallow? It’s creepier if you don’t know. But I wouldn’t assume it’s a normal foodstuff. I’m still also creeped out wondering how he learned they were edible. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/19 "2026-08-05T12:33:11Z")
Finally saw this and thought it was great. Like the best psych horror films, it leaves you thinking about it for days after. Like I realized that one reason the movie works is because it’s actually a relatable situation. I don’t mean eating people with 3 faces. I mean stumbling on to an unused part of a building or complex, or simply just the staff entrance by mistake. And you’re suddenly in a very unfamiliar part of what was previously a familiar location. And you can indeed get slightly lost, or nervous. Because otherwise, if they’d chosen instead a hell-like version of the real world, I think it would be too similar to several existing movies and novels. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2026, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562/20 "2026-08-05T13:38:16Z")
The SDMB tag of “documentary-bio” for this film is puzzling. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backrooms-2026/1030562.md?page=2)