Film Review: BACKROOMS (2026): A Work of Genius Handled with Terrifying Precision

Backrooms Review

Backrooms (2026) Film Review, a movie directed by Kane Parsons, written by Will Soodik and Kane Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, Avan Jogia, Robert Bobroczkyi, Ember Ambrose, Krista Kosonen, Philip Granger, Katharine Isabelle, Peter New, Sarah Hayward, Natalie Moon, Calix Fraser, Sawyer Fraser, Patrick Baynham and Rhiannon Roberts.

Kane Parsons’ haunted furniture store movie, Backrooms, is most likely going to be the best flat-out horror movie of the year. This fright fest is commandeered by two top-flight performances by the film’s leads, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. There’s something undeniably brilliant about the creepiness factor of the movie which makes me think this film could have been directed by the great Stanley Kubrick if he were still alive today. Focusing on a secret passageway to a place that is “FUBAR,” this movie is a trip to hell and back with the most provocative plot of any movie so far this year. If you don’t know what “FUBAR” is, look it up. This film plays with the viewer’s mind in ways that make it an exceptionally unique tale of terror, especially for fans of the genre. 

Ejiofor is nothing short of fantastic. He plays a disgruntled man named Clark who is seeing a therapist named Mary (Reinsve) to vent his dissatisfaction with his significant other’s choice to go back to college on his dime. Clark works at a furniture store and comes to the job one morning to see the words “Rip Off” spray painted on the window. Things couldn’t get worse for Clark. Mary, it seems, has a past where she had a mom who covered the windows of their home with papers so nobody could look in or out of the home. 

Clark enlists his two employees at the store to come with him through the aforementioned secret passageway in the furniture shop which leads to more “backrooms;” hence the movie’s title. This film has creative set design and stunning, bleak cinematography that creates the eerie images that make the film such a success. One can feel the grainy footage of the backrooms is a ploy for comparisons to found footage movies like The Blair Witch Project, but there’s so much more purpose to those grainy scenes than meets the eye.

In short order, the camera savvy employee, Bobby (Finn Bennett), takes the risk to be lowered down into the backrooms in which stinky clothes are present and an “apartheid” shirt is front and center. Bobby may meet a grisly fate, but this is the type of film in which you do not give away any of the major secrets under penalty of death. It’s impossible to fairly review Backrooms in this kind of review format without giving away some minor secrets so proceed at your own risk with this review if you don’t mind a few spoilers.

Reinsve is brilliant in her role. She is brought into the store on her own to see about helping Clark as he and his team are lost within the backrooms. Is Clark worthy of Mary’s care and help? is Clark just an innocent and misunderstood loser? Or could he be a lot more frightening than that?

Backrooms doesn’t play games, yet it does toy with the viewer in exciting and creative ways. Characters appear in different sizes and with distorted appearances. You’ll find a short guy in a wheelchair and although he looks fake, what will happen when it is revealed he is most likely not a phony? Parsons doesn’t play games that aren’t worth playing here. 

Mark Duplass pops up late in the movie as a man who seems to be doing some wild experimentation, but wait, I’ve already said too much. No need to lie, though. Duplass’s character is like an afterthought here to tie up loose ends and even though this film doesn’t technically tie up all loose threads in the film’s plot, it takes big risks and is a more daring film as a result.

Ejiofor is bone-chilling and Reinsve is, quite simply, at her most vulnerable and exciting in her role within Backrooms. Ejiofor is downright frightening and Reinsve plays off his skillful performance here with great depth and versatility. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the film’s dark tone will take it frightening places, but the vision of these backrooms is one of the great cinematic achievements of the year thus far.

The backrooms represent the corners of our mind that hold deep, dark secrets. These two main characters showcased in this film are meant to be sophisticated and the performances by Ejiofor and Reinsve are certainly up the task of captivating audiences with complex characterizations.

Parsons has created a virtual masterpiece. Each and every frame of Backrooms is carefully constructed to reveal frightening images that are nothing short of nerve-wracking to watch. There are a few minor hiccups with the film. For one, the supporting characters are so creepy that it’s hard to feel they are developed as anything other than scary monsters whether they’re human, real or not. Other than that, there’s a few unnecessarily dragged out shots, but this is all minimal in the grand scheme of things. 

Backrooms takes the viewer through a literal hell world within a small, yet simultaneously huge, store and the movie is a damn good excuse to get together with friends or horror movie fans in order to see it. This film puts Parsons on the map as a major director to look out for and each scene in Backrooms is more intense than the previous one, leading to a 1-2 sucker punch at the movie’s ending. That creepy resolve will drive this film home for fans of thought-provoking horror pictures. Backrooms is a cautionary tale of fears and suppressed desires that must be squashed for the greater good. This movie simply must be seen by fans of this genre.

Rating: 9/10

Leave your thoughts on this Backrooms review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Mobile App, Google News, Apple News, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, Flipboard, Bluesky, and Threads.