{"id":2503,"date":"2026-05-27T23:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/27\/backrooms-what-critics-are-saying-about-a24s-horror-film-directed-by-20-year-old-kane-parsons\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:34:00","slug":"backrooms-what-critics-are-saying-about-a24s-horror-film-directed-by-20-year-old-kane-parsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/27\/backrooms-what-critics-are-saying-about-a24s-horror-film-directed-by-20-year-old-kane-parsons\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Backrooms\u2019: What Critics Are Saying About A24\u2019s Horror Film Directed by 20-Year-Old Kane Parsons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\t \t \t\t<\/svg>\t\tLogo text<\/span> \t<\/a> <\/p>\n

\tMay has been a major month for horror fans<\/a>. Following the breakout success of Focus Features and Blumhouse\u2019s Obsession<\/em><\/a>, A24<\/a>\u2019s Backrooms<\/a><\/em> is set to hit theaters Friday \u2014 and the reviews are now in.<\/p>\n

\tThe films also share a common thread: both are directed by rising young voices in the genre, with 26-year-old Curry Barker helming Obsession<\/em><\/a> and 20-year-old Kane Parsons<\/a> directing Backrooms<\/em>. After online rumors questioned Parsons\u2019 involvement in the film, star Mark Duplass quickly defended<\/a> the filmmaker. \u201cWhen I was there, Kane was 100% in control,\u201d Duplass wrote on X Tuesday. \u201cMore so than many directors 3x his age.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tThe film also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell, with a script penned by Will Soodik. Horror leaders James Wan and Osgood Perkins are among the producers.<\/p>\n

\tBackrooms<\/em> follows therapist Dr. Mary Kline (Reinsve), who enters an alternate dimension after her patient disappears inside it. The film adapts Parsons\u2019 viral YouTube series, which he launched as a teenager.<\/p>\n

\tAs of Wednesday, Backrooms<\/em> holds an 87 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and is tracking<\/a> for a $45 million to $50 million opening weekend, which would mark A24\u2019s biggest debut yet. Below, see what critics are saying about the film.<\/p>\n

\tThe Hollywood Reporter\u2019s<\/em> Angie Han wrote<\/a>, \u201cEeriness for its own sake has its limits. The longer we spend exploring the Backrooms, the less frightening and more random these oddities start to feel. They seem designed not according to some internal logic of this universe or psychology of these characters but simply as an attempt to keep us guessing; it works only until it becomes apparent that there are no meaningful answers forthcoming.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tThe Daily Beast\u2019s<\/em> Nick Schager\u00a0wrote in his review<\/a>, \u201cBackrooms<\/em>\u00a0is unquestionably a horror film, but at its core, it has less in common with slashers, torture porn, and haunted house chillers than with the likes of David Lynch\u2019s\u00a0Lost Highway<\/em>. A descent into an uncanny-valley netherworld that\u2019s both a warped reflection and deconstruction of the modern world, Kane Parsons\u2019 debut feature is a waking nightmare that prioritizes atmosphere over jump scares, suggestion over explication. While it occasionally weighs itself down with excessive psychologizing, it casts a surrealistic spell that\u2019s unlike anything else in contemporary cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tYouTube critic Jeremy Jahns <\/a>praised the movie\u2019s found footage elements and balance of comedy, saying, \u201cThis movie is actually shockingly funny\u201d at times, \u201cThere were moments he was clearly going for a laugh, and it hit. The audience was laughing.\u201d Though he added that the movie felt too long. \u201cThe last act of this movie is kind of tacked on as an afterthought \u2026 It has its flaws, and I can see the Backrooms <\/em>working better as a series of online shorts, but by and large, I had myself a nice claustrophobic time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe Associated Press\u2019<\/a><\/em> Jake Coyle wrote that the \u201cbackstory is more intriguing\u201d than the film in his review: \u201cAs a horror, fluorescent-lit riff on Michel Gondry\u2019s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Backrooms<\/em> doesn\u2019t quite work. While the movie finds a potentially insightful pathway to a story, it can\u2019t bridge its very physical, wall-to-wall-carpeted labyrinth with Clark\u2019s mental state. A movie with so many doors ultimately can\u2019t find the right one.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tEmpire\u2019s<\/em> Jamie Graham wrote<\/a>, \u201cBackrooms<\/em>\u00a0is one of the most out there, surreal, art-horror features since David Lynch\u2019s\u00a0Eraserhead<\/em>. The web series might boast 200 million views since debuting in 2022, but this movie is most certainly not for everyone. It favours opacity, half-glimpsed creatures and a steady sense of unease over crowd-pleasing jumps, and is sure to spark endless debate and interpretations among those who aren\u2019t bored silly by it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Logo text May has been a major month for horror fans. Following the breakout success of Focus Features and Blumhouse\u2019s Obsession, A24\u2019s Backrooms is set to hit theaters Friday \u2014 and the reviews are now in. The films also share a common thread: both are directed by rising young voices in the genre, with 26-year-old Curry Barker helming Obsession and 20-year-old Kane Parsons directing Backrooms. After online rumors questioned Parsons\u2019 involvement in the film, star Mark Duplass quickly defended the filmmaker. \u201cWhen I was there, Kane was 100% in control,\u201d Duplass wrote on X Tuesday. \u201cMore so than many directors 3x his age.\u201d The film also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[141,142,2,145,27,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a24","category-backrooms","category-hollywood","category-kane-parsons","category-movie-news","category-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}