Film of the Day: "The Backrooms" — A Teen-Made Horror That Outshined Hollywood

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If you've ever stayed late at the office past midnight or wandered through an empty shopping mall, you'll know that creeping sense of unease.

That's exactly what makes "The Backrooms" so terrifying — a short film that's grown into a full-fledged universe over the past couple of years and is now gearing up for the big screen.

What the film's about

It's 1996, and a film crew is shooting an innocent scene for a student video when the cameraman suddenly... falls through the floor and finds himself in a world of endless corridors covered in yellow wallpaper and lit by sickeningly fluorescent light. And the worst part? He's not alone in there.

Viewing experience

I was blown away when I learned this horror was made by an ordinary 16-year-old — Kane Parsons. In 2022, he uploaded the film to YouTube, and it quickly went viral. In just a couple of years, the video racked up over 67 million views. The reason for its success? Brilliant simplicity and powerful atmosphere.
A staircase leading to a square opening in the wall with a black monster with long arms nearby in a yellow room
Frames from the horror short "The Backrooms"
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It feels like you've stumbled into a place that shouldn't exist, where space defies normal logic. Everything — from the dreary interior to the muffled echo of footsteps — builds this atmosphere of hopelessness. And if someone says it's "just corridors," they clearly didn't watch past the first minute.

Critical and audience reaction

On IMDb, the short has a 7.9 rating. That's higher than many Hollywood films. "The Substance," for example, sits at 7.2. And the cult classic "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" — 6.6.
A curly-haired young man in a black sweater stands against a yellow background
"The Backrooms" director Kane Parsons
Source: @theatomicmonster
In their reviews, viewers call Parsons' film an "absolute masterpiece" and "the best analog horror." A user named onepunchduckaloo wrote:
The Backrooms is a place where if you don't go beyond the bounds of reality, you end up on multiple levels depicting liminal states, essentially it's a separate subgenre of liminal horror.
IMDb user onepunchduckaloo
In 2025, Kane started working on a feature-length version with A24 — and that's the perfect reason to fire up the short right now and see if you've got the nerve to watch it all the way through. Earlier on zoomboola.com, we told you about "Lights Out" — three minutes that'll change your evening.