Backrooms opens in theaters on Friday, May 29, and the person whose life this moment has most changed is Kane Parsons — the 20-year-old director making his feature debut with the film.
The stakes are already concrete: as of Wednesday Backrooms held an 87 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and was tracking for a $45 million to $50 million opening weekend. The sci‑fi horror, adapted from Parsons’ viral YouTube series he launched as a teenager, stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett and Lukita Maxwell. Renate Reinsve plays therapist Dr. Mary Kline, and Ejiofor plays her patient; the plot follows Dr. Kline after her patient disappears into an alternate dimension that she then enters herself.
Searches for the backrooms movie release date will end May 29, but the film’s immediate weight comes from two places at once: a broad audience appetite — reflected in the $45 million to $50 million tracking — and unusually warm critical attention for an A24‑positioned horror release. One of the film’s producers is James Wan, and Osgood Perkins is also listed among the producers; Mark Duplass, who appears in the film, wrote on X Tuesday in defense of Parsons’ control over the set, saying, "When I was there, Kane was 100% in control" and adding that he was "More so than many directors 3x his age."
That confidence has a visible echo in reviews. One critic wrote that "Backrooms is 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’s Lost Highway." Another reviewer described it as "a waking nightmare that prioritizes atmosphere over jump scares, suggestion over explication," and both lines have helped frame audience expectations for a film that trades on a viral creepypasta origin while aiming for art‑house dread.
Context matters here: the film is a direct adaptation of Parsons’ earlier YouTube series, which built a fanbase while he was still a teenager. The jump from short, viral work to a studio‑backed theatrical release is a big one, and Backrooms arrives as part of a busy month for horror — positioned clearly to capture both internet curiosity and traditional critical attention. The Rotten Tomatoes score and the tracking projections are the immediate evidence that the gamble has legs.
The tension is obvious. Parsons is 20; his source material grew online and by design unsettles viewers with uncanny architecture rather than obvious shocks. Producers and cast are publicly endorsing the director’s command — Duplass’ message on X underscored that — but the industry measure will be whether that command translates into sustaining audiences past the opening weekend and whether reviews hold once the wider public weighs in. High early scores and heavy tracking numbers don't always move in lockstep once a film reaches general release.
So what happens next is clear and consequential: Backrooms hits theaters May 29, and its opening weekend will be the first hard test of whether Parsons’ leap from viral filmmaker to mainstream director sticks. If the film lands near the $45 million to $50 million projection while maintaining strong reviews, Parsons will arrive at 21 with a rare combination of box‑office and critical validation. If it flops commercially or critics and audiences split sharply, the industry will reassess whether internet origin stories scale to theatrical success. For now, the backrooms movie release date is set — May 29 — and every headline this weekend will answer whether that date marks a breakout or a cautionary note.
