Ready to enter the “Backrooms?”
The new movie, from A24, is based on Kane Parsons’ viral web series about a series of haunting liminal spaces and will arrive in theaters on May 29. Watch the new trailer below. You might want to keep the lights on for this one.
Even if you have never seen or heard of “Backrooms,” which combines the uneasiness of wandering around a dead mall with something far more sinister, you’ll still get the heebie-jeebies from this trailer. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a man who discovers an entryway to this otherworldly space, behind a mattress store, and becomes obsessed with charting its mysteries. (We’re getting some distinct “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”/”Stir of Echoes” energy.)
Ejiofor’s therapist, played by recent Oscar nominee Renate Reinsve (in a role originally earmarked for Cristin Milioti), goes into the space searching for him. Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell also star.
The movie looks to maintain the web series’ deep lore and its glitchy 1990’s setting.
Incredibly, Parsons was only 19 when he made “Backrooms.” He is flanked by an all-star army of producers, including horror heavyweights James Wan and Osgood Perkins, along with Shawn Levy and his producing partner Dan Levine, along with powerhouse producer Peter Chernin.
“Backrooms” is the latest YouTube-to-big-screen jump, following last year’s “Shelby Oaks” from YouTuber Chris Stuckmann and the surprise hit “Iron Lung” from Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach. A24 bet big with YouTubers before, with Danny and Michael Philippou, also known as RackaRacka, who made new horror classics “Talk to Me” and “Bring Her Back” for A24.
A24 is coming off their biggest hit yet with last year’s ping pong drama “Marty Supreme,” and has the Robert Pattinson/Zendaya dark comedy “The Drama” arriving this week. Other upcoming A24 films include David Lowery’s musical “Mother Mary,” coming later in April; Hugh Jackman-led adventure “The Death of Robin Hood” in June and Olivia Wilde’s Sundance sensation “The Invite” also in June.
“Backrooms” arrives, to make your skin crawl, on May 29.
