Backrooms first popped up as a concept on the forum 4chan in 2019. In essence, backrooms are an unnerving, inescapable liminal space consisting of endless, eerie rooms. The rooms are designed to appear as uncanny versions of the rooms we see in our everyday life, like warehouses and offices. But the key is, something is not quite right. Pixels’ Backrooms project on YouTube expanded this creepy trend into a narrative, and now, that narrative is being extended further into a feature film.
Thus, at just nineteen years old, Pixel is directing a movie version of The Backrooms with the help of A24. And, the film has just bagged its lead actors: Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
What Is The Backrooms?
According to Deadline, The Backrooms (Found Footage) documents how “a young filmmaker’s fall into another dimension leaves him wandering through an unsettlingly yellow, empty and labyrinthine office space, which may or may not be home to otherworldly beings.”
The movie is set to go into production this summer.
This isn’t the first time viral content has been turned into a movie. After the reactions to the indie horror game Slender Man went mega viral online, Sony and Screen Gems attempted to capitalize on its success by adapting it into a full-blown film. However, the only thing more terrifying than the movie is its reviews — its Rotten Tomatoes score is a mere 8%.
Whether The Backrooms can overcome this trend of bad viral movies remains to be seen, but if anyone can do it, it’s probably A24.
You can watch the original film here.
