A24 has just released the trailer for their film releasing this year, titled Backrooms. There has been a lot of buzz around the internet community about this film and its release because of the subject matter of the film itself.
What are the Backrooms
The “backrooms” is an internet-created urban legend of an alternate dimension, which features a maze of liminal spaces. It’s an “in-between” dimension that, to escape, you must complete each level/room in this labyrinth. Each level provides its own challenge and possibly monsters that occupy its space.
What makes the backrooms so terrifying is the eerie emptiness of the rooms, accompanied by the knowledge that monsters could be lurking and following your every move.
The Trailer
Design of the Backrooms from A24’s trailer
What makes the idea of this film so unique is the set design to create the world of the infamous backrooms. What makes the backrooms terrifying is the absence of any detail whatsoever.
Lack of Detail
The design elements of the backrooms are actually the lack of any standout design at all. The genius of the design is that it compels the viewer to see what they want to see, even if what they see is nothing at all.
The sparseness of the rooms allows for the imagination of the viewer to run wild. A large aspect of the lore of the backrooms is that nothing is as it seems. Its interior is a blank canvas for viewers to project their deepest fears and hallucinations.
Anemoia of the Backrooms
The familiarity of the design and the yellowed walls of the rooms offer a strange sense of nostalgia for a memory of a place that never actually existed. This phenomenon is also known as anemoia, which is defined as a yearning for a place that you have never been.
The sterile walls mimic a familiar space that you can’t quite put your finger on. The rooms look like something out of a dream, a vague backdrop from the construction of your mind.
An Endless Labyrinth
The neverending labyrinth design of the backgrounds offers a sense of entrapment. It’s sameness in design lends into the disorienting nature of the backrooms. Hallways seem to lead back to the starting point fueling a sense of hopelessness and terror. It’s design offers a pyschological torture element to its entrapments.
My guesses to A24’s spin on the Backrooms
A24 has hired the credited creator of the Backroom’s legend as the director of the upcoming film. With this in mind as well as A24’s overall horror movie aesthetic I think we can expect this latest A24 film to pack more of a pyschological horror punch.
I believe that suspense is going to drive this film as most of the horrors of the backrooms is the feeling of entrapment and isolation. While the monsters that live in these backrooms play an important role in the levels, I believe the film will lean into a more ambiguious approach.
I don’t believe we will see these monsters in full as half of the scariness of these monsters is their shifting and mysterious nature. Its the lack of knowledge about these creatures is what allows for the viewers imagination to run rampant.
Catch A24’s Backrooms in theaters May 26th, 2026.