Global box office surpasses 180 million, director is only 20: Backrooms brings an internet horror legend to the big screen

Now that June is here, if you’re looking for something different to watch this weekend, A24‘s latest psychological thriller, Backrooms, is one of the most talked-about films on social media right now. Adapted from an online urban legend that went viral, the film has sparked discussion with its intense sense of oppression rather than exaggerated monsters, and will officially open in Hong Kong theaters on June 6.

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The more ordinary the everyday setting, the more unsettling the psychological nightmare

The film is adapted from a series of short films by 20-year-old director Kane Parsons, which have amassed 200 million views on YouTube. This time, he brings that familiar sense of fear to the big screen. Backrooms follows Killar, a furniture store owner played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who one day accidentally enters a mysterious space behind a wall in the store’s basement. Before him lies an endless maze of yellow wallpaper and fluorescent lights that hum without stopping. These places, known as “liminal spaces,” are unnerving precisely because they are so quiet and monotonous.

As Killar becomes lost in this reality-warping space, Mary, the psychologist investigating the case and played by Renate Reinsve, is also drawn into the nightmare. This seemingly simple premise opened to more than US$ 118 million worldwide, even surpassing Marty Supreme: The Mad Genius to become A24’s highest-grossing film in North America.

Fear without bloodshed speaks most directly to modern anxieties

What makes this film special is that it forgoes the sudden scares common in traditional horror movies, instead using the most familiar everyday settings to create unease. Places that look like office hallways or back stairwells in old buildings, paired with lifeless lighting, tap into urban dwellers’ underlying anxiety about enclosed spaces. After watching it, you may find yourself taking a second look at the walls around you as you walk down the street.

From ticket giveaways to a post-screening talk: Finding the city’s forgotten corners

If you’re ready to experience that suffocating feeling in the theater, this round of ticket giveaways is also quite collectible. Purchase a ticket to a regular screening during the first week to receive an original A3 wallpaper-pattern poster. For regular screenings in the second week, you’ll receive a set of two transparent cards, available only at Broadway Circuit cinemas. Quantities are limited and available while supplies last.

If you enjoy learning about the background behind a film, look out for the post-screening talk on June 7 in the ground-floor lobby of Broadway Cinematheque. Chan Kit, author of Hong Kong Hidden Corners, and the development team behind Thirteen Buildings will examine how the film creates its psychological impact through the lens of the city’s forgotten corners and spatial aesthetics.

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