Western horror cinema often comes in waves: 80s slashers, 90meta-comedies, 2000porn abuse, 2010s found videos, and more recently an explosion of arty, heavy themes .“elevated horror” entry 2026A few new ideas from budding filmmakers (who coincidentally all got their start on YouTube) give us a glimpse of what the next big move could be, from Mark Fishbach’s surreal, near cinema-nensa The Iron Lung in a dark comedy by Curry Barker Infatuation. One big theme for Gen Z to emerge was .“liminal horror” – the eerie vibe one gets from empty spaces. Filling that void comes Kane Parsons’ Back roomsand with enthusiasm.
Backrooms from a 4chan postwhich was a .“creepypasta” then became very popular by Parsons in a series of short films on YouTube. The concept is strange: An endless maze made up of mysteriously (and wonderfully) designed interiors, which one can accidentally enter and get lost inside. At the beginning of the Parsons directory, this is exactly what happened to Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Clark, a store owner who is depressed about my furniture.
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Parsons’ first YouTube series is .“analog horror” variety, animations that are tricked into looking like real footage in the form of a VHS filter hide. Their best feature is their simplicity, relying on the creepy, mysterious way that Backrooms put together ordinary things – doors, stairs, windows, walls – in wrong ways. A feature film needs actors and a narrative, however. Clark and his therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) disturbingly called Traits and Backstories. Back rooms it’s at its worst when it goes through what feels like an obligatory conversation between the two leads.
The film is in its place best when the Parson lived in his wheelhouse. Reason to see Back rooms his vision of the eponymous place, rendered here in magnificent, extensive detail. The appeal of the horrors limited by the setting is lost where the unreal locations are made to be more affecting, but the creative madness of the set design keeps things suitably disturbing. An extended sequence early on, in which Clark silently explores room after room, is admirably restrained and genuinely creepy. Parsons’ imagination is on full display here – there really is something new around every corner. Two are extended VHS find a sequence of images and it finds Parsons in his comfort zone. The scenes in these scenes are mundane but still effective, and like the best found footage films, they grow in intensity from things that are hidden in plain sight.
Even outside of Backrooms, Parsons displays a surprisingly mature directorial vision for his young age (he was born 2005). Each of the supposedly normal places that Clark and Mary live in is as shockingly simple as the Backrooms themselves; as above, it seems, so below. A thoughtful visual choice, an unlikely compliment to many of Parsons’ contemporaries (see: the dim, muddy look Infatuation). Even as the stakes rise and the monsters begin to follow us, Parsons takes a very low-key approach. However Back rooms it ends with its many unsolved mysteries. Like those yellow-papered hallways themselves, it’s charmingly spacious and incredibly inviting.
