Backrooms (2026) Review: When Ambiguity Becomes the Scare

A failing furniture store, a hidden maze underneath it, and one man slowly realising his life has already been collapsing before the horror even starts.

Backrooms wants you to sit in its psychological discomfort for as long as it does itself, which works really well for a while, until it decides to start explaining too much.

Good Points

• Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance

• Set design is brilliant

• Excellent use of silence and negative space

• Claustrophobic, consistent tone for most of the runtime

• Therapy scenes add some emotional grounding

• Effective slow-burn tension

Bad Points

• Over-explaining the mystery weakens the horror later on

• Some maze sequences repeat the same idea too often

• Visual direction is occasionally too plain for the concept

• Late film loses some of its early ambiguity

My Thoughts on Backrooms

It works best when it doesn’t try to explain what it is

I really enjoyed the first half of Backrooms, simply because it refuses to give you anything concrete to hold onto - Clark goes under the store, things don’t make sense, and instead of the film stepping in to clarify, it lets you sit in that same space with him - and what happens in the maze itself isn’t scary either in a traditional sense - nothing is constantly chasing him, and nothing is screaming in your face every five minutes - but it feels more like the space itself is slightly misaligned with reality, and your brain slowly starts catching up to that fact before you’re actually ready for it.

Rooms repeat, but not exactly, corridors feel familiar, but not quite right, and doors appear where they shouldn’t, none of which is loudly pointed out to you either, so it just ends up getting under your skin in a strong psychological sense, where you start doing the work yourself, questioning whether you’re remembering things wrong.

The maze also doesn’t feel like it has any intent either, as it’s not actively trying to harm Clark in a clear, emotional way, because it just exists in a way that refuses to acknowledge him properly, which makes everything feel worse in some ways, because hostility at least gives you something to respond to, but indifference just keeps going.

You’re just watching a man get worn down by architecture

That actually was my main takeaway from large parts of it, and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays his role really well as Clark, simply because he doesn’t go big with it, he doesn’t need to overact or have any breakdown speeches, you feel his frustration building into exhaustion, and then into something closer to resignation.

It’s all very grounded for a concept that actually isn’t grounded at all, and that contrast is what carries the film’s emotional side more than anything else, especially in the therapy scenes with Mary, as thankfully they’re not overused, but they give you this quieter external perspective on Clark’s mental state, which keeps things somewhat feeling human.

But, once it starts explaining itself, it starts shrinking

The film did lose me a bit however at the point where it shifts from “experience” into “explanation” - characters start talking about theories, possibilities, what might be going on, and suddenly the maze becomes something more defined, and that’s was a problem for me, because the second something is defined, it stops being infinite in your head.

I didn’t actually hate the explanation scenes individually though, but they absolutely undercut what was working before, where the fear wasn’t coming from understanding the maze, it was coming from not understanding it, so once the film starts trying to organise it into something readable, it loses that edge - it becomes smaller, less unsettling, more manageable, and horror really shouldn’t feel manageable.

There’s also a structural issue where the maze sequences start looping in on themselves, not literally, but emotionally, where Clark walks, discovers something slightly different, reacts, moves again, and the film repeats that cycle more than once.

At first I was fine with it, because the environment itself is interesting enough, but it definitely needed a bit more escalation or variation in how those sequences played out, as I felt it flattened certain stretches a bit.

The set design is fantastic

Credit where it’s due, the set design really is a joy to behold, consistent in a way that makes it believable as a space that shouldn’t exist properly, where I could not help but pay attention, because I wanted to see what kind of room or corridor would show up next, and that curiosity kept me going more than the plot did at times.

Visually though, I do think it plays things a bit safe, as there are moments where the concept deserved more creative camera work or more aggressive framing, because a lot of it stays fairly standard, which feels like a missed opportunity given how strange the setting is.

I did enjoy Backrooms enough though, especially when it leaned fully into silence and ambiguity, and I am really happy at the numbers it is doing, especially so close to Obsession being released, and for a young director crafting his first feature length film like this, it’s a strong start.

And apparently it has been rumored that a sequel will be on the way, too.

Final Verdict

Backrooms is a strong atmosphere-first horror film with a strong central performance, and as long as you know what kind of horror film this is, and don’t go in expecting what it clearly is not, I think we have a lot to admire here, even if I did think it had some flaws.

Trailer

Directed by - Kane Parsons

Written by - Will Soodik

Cast includes - Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell

Cinematography -Jeremy Cox

Edited by - Greg Ng

Music by - Edo Van Breemen and Kane Parsons

Running time - 110 minutes