Backrooms
Rent & Buy
A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.
What critics thought
Kane Parsons's feature debut earns broad critical admiration for its atmosphere, sound design, and the restrained performances of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, with most critics treating it less as a conventional horror film than as a sustained, disorienting dreamscape. The main fault lines run between those who found its psychological ambitions fully realized and those who felt the script strains under the weight of its themes — trauma, gentrification, the unconscious — without quite earning them. Audience scores lag noticeably behind critic enthusiasm, suggesting the film's elliptical, experimental mode plays better on paper than in the theater.
“cobbles together ideas about trauma and the mysterious workings of the unconscious, and sprinkles on some metaphors about gentrification as a repression of the past for good measure.”
Beatrice Loayza·The New York Times
“a truly terrifying cinematic rabbit hole that takes its audience down a twisted and dread-filled path as cerebral in its horror as it is aesthetically pleasing in its design.”
Lex Briscuso·IGN
Genres
Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction
Cast & Crew
Kane ParsonsDirector
Chiwetel EjioforClark
Renate ReinsveMary
Finn BennettBobby
Lukita MaxwellKat
Mark DuplassPhil
Avan JogiaNaren Warne
Robert BobroczkyiPirate Clark
Ember AmbroseYoung Mary
Krista KosonenNora
Philip GrangerMeterman
Katharine IsabelleRobin
Peter NewBig Wayne
Edo van BreemenComposer
Kane ParsonsComposer
Jeremy CoxCinematographyFrom the studio
Backrooms
A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.
What critics thought
Kane Parsons's feature debut earns broad critical admiration for its atmosphere, sound design, and the restrained performances of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, with most critics treating it less as a conventional horror film than as a sustained, disorienting dreamscape. The main fault lines run between those who found its psychological ambitions fully realized and those who felt the script strains under the weight of its themes — trauma, gentrification, the unconscious — without quite earning them. Audience scores lag noticeably behind critic enthusiasm, suggesting the film's elliptical, experimental mode plays better on paper than in the theater.
“cobbles together ideas about trauma and the mysterious workings of the unconscious, and sprinkles on some metaphors about gentrification as a repression of the past for good measure.”
Beatrice Loayza·The New York Times
“a truly terrifying cinematic rabbit hole that takes its audience down a twisted and dread-filled path as cerebral in its horror as it is aesthetically pleasing in its design.”
Lex Briscuso·IGN
Genres
Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction
Cast & Crew
Kane ParsonsDirectorChiwetel EjioforClarkRenate ReinsveMaryFinn BennettBobbyLukita MaxwellKatMark DuplassPhilAvan JogiaNaren WarneRobert BobroczkyiPirate ClarkEmber AmbroseYoung MaryKrista KosonenNoraPhilip GrangerMetermanKatharine IsabelleRobinPeter NewBig WayneEdo van BreemenComposerKane ParsonsComposerJeremy CoxCinematographyFrom the studio
Rent & Buy