October 10th: Backrooms
Backrooms
Released: 2026
Directed by: Kane Parsons
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell
Honestly, I am having trouble writing what would be a cohesive mini-essay about this movie. I have plenty of thoughts, but they are jumbled like a pile of furniture in the middle of a yellow room with fluorescent lighting. This is a really interesting movie. Unsettling. Creepy. Sad. What does it all mean? I have theories. No idea if they are correct, but I think that will be my focus.
The movie is about failed architect and furniture store owner Clark, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who discovers a doorway in his store to perhaps the most disappointing entrance to Narnia ever. He finds a never-ending pathway of rooms you may find in the offices around his store in San José. And perhaps something dangerous as well.
So what are these “Backrooms”?
We are never expressly told. So we, as an audience, have to do some theorizing based on evidence. Mine is this: It is an ever-expanding dimension that absorbs people’s memories and creates flawed facsimiles of those memories. People. Places. Things. Everything in someone’s mind gets partially recreated, but like a dream. Enough to resemble reality, but incorrect somehow. Like you remember the house you grew up in, but the furniture is sunken into the floor. Or you remember a guy you saw on the bus, but his face is not quite right.
Evidence of this: When Clark enters, many aspects of his store (furniture, the stop sign outside on the road, the McKee Road sign) are represented. At the end, some of Mary’s memories are now part of the rooms, like her demolished childhood home and the room where she meets Phil. There is a representation of Kat’s apartment complex, meaning that her memories are likely to have been absorbed as well.
What’s the monster thing that keeps attacking people?
Get Nathan Boegel’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
In my theory, the Backrooms are a representation of a person’s mind. Well, there are many, many broken minds out there in the world. Broken because of addiction, because of abuse, because of rage or depression…so many people dealing with dark burdens. So if someone’s mind is being manifested, these dark thoughts may be manifested as well.
Evidence of this: We only actually see one representation of this monster, Pirate Clark. A giant manifestation of Clark’s disappointment and shame in himself, of not being the man he expected to be. Or maybe it could be his alcoholism. Maybe it could be his rage issues or his control problems. It is clearly something inside him that is literally self-destructive. But it is possible there is more than one. When Kat is stuck on the other side of a wall from Clark, she is running from something. Is it the same creature? Or is it a manifestation of her own issues?
Where did these Backrooms come from?
No idea. Truly. I do have a theory. It is a natural phenomenon that the Async company discovered through their work with MRI machines. I say it is natural because they don’t seem to know where it came from. And I believe it existed before them.
Evidence of this: There is not as much evidence to back this up, but there are a couple of things that set it off for me. First, Clark discovers flawed memory representations of others within the rooms. A redheaded businesswoman with three faces. An older man who looks like a regular furniture shopper. But it’s the third one that intrigues me: a little person in a wheelchair. The interesting part of him is this: the chair, his clothes, and the lamp attached to him are not from 1990. They are from the early 20th century at the latest. More likely, the end of the 19th century. So, to me, that signals one of two things: this guy entered the rooms nearly 100 years before Async or Clark, OR it’s an Easter egg referencing San José’s architectural oddity, the Winchester Mystery House. I think the first is more likely because the second doesn’t explain his presence in the rooms.
Small Observations:
- Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve both give excellent performances. Their roleplay scenes really show their range as actors. Well done.
- I know this is a weird question: why Capitol and McKee? Like that is a really random location. I can tell there is a statement about suburban expanse of office parks, strip malls and the sameness of all of it. It’s just an interesting choice.
- I was texting a friend while watching the film on my laptop. I mentioned that I was at the part where Clark brought in his “redshirts,” his assistant manager and her boyfriend. I have never been more right in describing characters.
- MCU actors: 1
Overall Rank: S
It’s one of those movies that will stick with you. Its tone is exactly what is needed. It is a fun Twilight Zone-type film. Strongly recommended.
