---
title: "Backrooms (2026) review"
description: "Lynch for the Minecraft generation."
url: https://www.joekarlsson.com/reviews/backrooms-2026/
---

![A still from Backrooms (2026)](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/reviews/backrooms-2026/backdrop.webp)

# Backrooms (2026)

May 29, 2026 | 3 min read | Rated 4 out of 5 | Dir. Kane Parsons

Lynch for the Minecraft generation.

I genuinely don’t know a whole lot about Backrooms lore but as a standalone film this absolutely worked for me. I was bought in the second they announced it and somehow it cleared the bar.

The sound design is incredible. Deeply Lynchian. There’s this constant droning buzz of fluorescent lights humming under everything that reminded me of how Lynch uses industrial sound to keep dread bubbling in the background. The score is discordant and uneasy but also somehow feels like a memory, which is a weird trick to pull off. The production design is the real star though. You can tell these sets are handmade.

Every room feels like an interactive art project. There were a couple of effects that didn’t land (the no-clipping through walls bit looked a little weak) but the tangible, practical quality of the whole thing more than makes up for it. The whole movie feels like a fever dream we’ve all collectively had. Like a space you’re not supposed to be in.

This movie is deeply psychological in a way I didn’t see coming. The main character is a psychologist working with an architect, and once you clock that, the whole thing cracks open. It’s literally about the walls we put up, the mind palaces we build to organize our memories, the rooms we don’t let ourselves go into. You’re navigating someone’s psyche through architecture and it rules. Go in knowing as little as possible.

What’s exciting about watching Kane Parsons work is that you can feel a different set of influences than I’m used to from filmmakers. His references aren’t film and TV. They’re video games and secondhand Simpsons jokes and YouTube. This movie has way more in common with Portal than it does with any actual horror film I can name. That’s a real generational shift in what cinema can pull from and it’s exciting to watch happen in real time.

One gripe. The scientist stuff is the weakest part by a mile and the movie would lose nothing if you cut it. The movie is admittedly light on lore and I love it for that, but every time the scientists showed up I felt the air leave the room. The lore heads will eat it up though, so fair enough.

The Christmas tree room is the moment I was fully locked in. Genuinely felt lost. Craning my neck to see what was past the tree. That’s the trick the whole movie is doing. Dark corners and constant uncertainty about what’s around them.

Also love that the giant alien from Alien: Romulus is getting steady work as a creature performer. Always a treat to see him.

Questions I left the theater with. What’s in my rooms? Did the psychologist’s mom go in there and is that why she lost it? Do the Backrooms have a corrupting effect? Why isn’t the scientist corrupted if he’s in there every day? Does it only snare the susceptible? What do the memory humanoids taste like?

Seated for whatever Kane does next. Even Backrooms 2. Take me back.

Also on [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/joekarlsson/film/backrooms-2026/)

## Works on My Machine

Get the next post by email. My newsletter covers homelab builds, AI tools and open source, and it goes out when I have something to say.

It's free, and you can unsubscribe anytime. You'll get an email to confirm first.

![Joe Karlsson at his desk, chin on hand, with a microphone in front of him](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/about/collage/studio.webp)

Joe  
Karlsson

I write about my homelab, AI tools, databases, and the weird stuff I build on the side.

[More about me →](https://www.joekarlsson.com/about/)

[Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/joekarlsson.com) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joekarlsson/) | [GitHub](https://github.com/JoeKarlsson)