How A24's Liminal Horror Movie 'Backrooms' Was Born From the Internet

"Until recently, "liminal spaces" were only known to architects. But on the Internet, storytellers and amateur filmmakers have morphed these ubiquitous places you pass by on errand runs into caverns of cosmic terror. Now, a new A24 film from 20-year-old filmmaker Kane Parsons is set to kick off the summer and christen it the season of liminal horror."

"To enter the Backrooms is to exit reality itself by "noclipping" out, a term taken from video game developers that refers to players phasing through walls, ceilings, and floors. The Backrooms as an expanse of extradimensional space of unknown size represents a key element to the whole concept."

""The Backrooms" began as a crowdsourced folk story on 4chan. For about seven years, between 2011 and 2018, a photograph of an empty room with carpeted flooring and yellow-tinted lighting circulated message boards. On May 2019, an anonymous user started a 4chan thread inviting others to post "disquieting images that just feel 'off.'" Someone else turned the thread into a creative writing prompt."

Liminal spaces—empty offices, waiting rooms, and abandoned malls—have transformed from architectural terminology into internet horror phenomena. Storytellers and filmmakers have reimagined these mundane locations as sources of cosmic terror. A24's new film "Backrooms," directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, brings this trend to theaters. The concept originated as crowdsourced folklore on 4chan, beginning with a 2002 photograph of an empty Wisconsin HobbyTown that circulated for years. In May 2019, an anonymous user initiated a thread requesting "disquieting images" that feel unsettling, sparking creative writing that developed the Backrooms mythology—a concept where people "noclip" out of reality into extradimensional spaces of unknown size.

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