Reviews
‘Backrooms’ Review: The Next Big Love It or Hate It Horror
The Backrooms have come a long way. From a single odd imageboard post on 4chan came far more fan expansions than anyone could have expected. Those bits and pieces of fiction spawned fandom, fandom spawned even more fan fiction. A digital mess of an oral tradition begins, spreading talk of levels and monsters inside a supposedly barren space; a space no one seems to agree on the mechanics of. Then came the proverbial iron age, as an intrepid young filmmaker took the crude mimetic ore given to him and forged something special. Short films that cut into the minds of millions through YouTube, lifting that yellow eldritch horror to even higher heights.
We’re of course talking about Kane Parsons, Kane Pixels if you prefer usernames to government ones. In a sea of voices trying to define the Backrooms, Parson’s short films became the voice of the lore itself; the canon, the definitive texts. He carved out a universe that people wanted more of with each episode. And four years later, that want has carried the bizarre sci-fi horror series from YouTube to the silver screen with 2026’s Backrooms. What Parsons has made here is sure to divide audiences more than ever, with the writer-director’s freshman feature cementing itself firmly as the next big “love it or hate it” horror film.
What Is Backrooms (2026) About?
While the previous narratives of the Backrooms are wrought with mystery and a catalog of lore, the story this time around requires no previous knowledge. It’s refreshingly straightforward, actually. A troubled furniture store owner named Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) stumbles upon a bizarre break in reality, phasing through a wall in his place of business. Crossing over to the other side, he finds a seemingly endless series of rooms, hallways, and secret passages. The nonsensical layouts are plastered with yellow wallpaper and bathed in harsh fluorescent lighting.
Distorted reflections of the real world lay scattered around. Furniture that shouldn’t exist, items clipping through the floor and each other. Noises follow him, bizarre bits of recording equipment surround him. And the more Clark explores, the more his obsession with the place beyond places grows. Soon, that obsession drags those few people left in his life into the hellscape, with few signs of ever returning.
The Backrooms, Depicted to Their Full Skin-Crawling Potential
On an atmospheric and aesthetic level, Parsons’ transition to feature length storytelling is a home run if ever there was one. The original shorts were notably entirely digital, but had a realistic tactility, a physical feeling that generated unease. It wasn’t just grainy found footage horror; It was an uncanny experience that really grabbed you and dragged you deeper and deeper into a nightmare. That nightmarish reality has been presented here in fantastic fashion.
Parsons’ skill was never in question until recent rumor mill nonsense, rumors firmly refuted by this first outing with access to more professional tools. Working with brilliantly designed sets and real lighting, Parsons and cinematographer Jeremy Cox (producer Osgood Perkin’s go-to DP) have only amplified the eerie nature of the Backrooms to the Nth degree. They’ve made a place that is uncomfortable to navigate and be in, with its best moments, photography wise, minimizing the characters. Parsons’ tendency to make them feel absolutely minuscule, swallowed by the environment, just works perfectly.
Swallowed really feels like the most appropriate verb, too. The Backrooms visually reek of thin air, the walls themselves breathing a rotten breath. It’s uncomfortably and unnaturally still, but undeniably alive. It feels hungry. If you fall into the camp that the real main character is the Backrooms themselves, you will surely be satisfied just seeing the place depicted to its full, skin crawling potential. Doubly so when you hear the borderline experimental soundtrack Parsons and Edo Van Breemen cooked up to accompany the visuals. It’s an arrangement that is sure to be some of the best music in a horror film this year.
Weak Character Work and a Divisive Third Act Cause Trouble
If a movie could be carried by its set design and soundtrack alone, Backrooms would be front and center for best horror of the year. But it unfortunately falters outside of those categories. It doesn’t have the most balanced of scripts for its actors to work with, and like its characters, its sense of time gets lost. The resulting story is one that is engaging and truly frightening, but in the end will split viewers right down the middle in terms of how satisfying it is due to its pacing and ending.
Ejiofor and co-star Renate Reinsve, who plays Clark’s intrepid therapist Mary, really inhabit their characters. They feel believable, and their relationship is uncomfortable even before the supernatural comes into play. Ultimately though, the dialogue just isn’t that strong; it’s far too plain and repetitive as it reaches the height of the tension between them. As it progresses, it feels painted in aggressively simple strokes that are noticeable even as the overt supernatural horror is cranked up.
Then, there is the unavoidable iceberg that is Backrooms’ third act. It’s objectively the weakest part of the film, no matter how much one might personally enjoy it. It presents as a final burst of energy that rushes the story to its muddled conclusion. And it’s a very make or break conclusion at that. It’s hard for me not to love the bleak and opaque nature of the finale, since it’s that bleakness and obscurity that drew me to the setting in the first place.
Not a Crowd Pleaser, but Still a Pleasant Surprise
It leaves much to the imagination, even with the questions it answers, and it’s admirable. But for every person who absolutely loves the ambiguous and fatalistic closer, there will be someone raging about the pacing and lack of follow through. People will demand more answers, and demand a more aggressive and bombastic ending. A “crowd pleaser,” Backrooms is not, though many will be leaving the theater pleasantly surprised this opening weekend.
Backrooms is ultimately a success, and a worthy watch regardless of which camp you fall into over its ending. It succeeds in introducing the uninitiated to a dreamlike world of infinite horror. And for those who wanted to see that world in a brand-new light all over again, it’s a treat to be certain. Parsons’ debut is a must-see; not for the dull novelty of another internet personality crossing over into the industry, but because the film is a one-of-a-kind visual experience in its own right.
Most people find that stretching their dollar still barely gets them by in today’s economy. I am very particular about what I spend my spare money on regarding extracurriculars. And no one likes to feel like their money is wasted. Madame Morbid Trolley Tours wasn’t an experience I had been familiar with. Maybe that’s because I’m chronically offline for most of my life. So this leads to the perfect question: in today’s turbulent economy, is Madame Morbid Trolley Tours worth the price? The short answer is unquestionably, yes. But it’s more than just a simple yes.
My wife and I arrived at the designated meeting point 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. A handful of minutes later, a gorgeous, e-candle-lit trolley pulled up to the side of the road. We were greeted by impeccably on-brand Allison Chase, our tour guide, and trolley driver ‘Mad’ Matt Zaller. The wonderfully cheery duo invited us on the trolley, and the tour was set to begin.
400 Years of Death, Destruction, and Infrastructure
After a welcoming video intro from someone who knows a thing or two about busting ghosts, we set off on the inaugural Madame Morbid Trolley Tour in its ninth year of operation. From the Brooklyn Naval Yard all the way to Dumbo, and more, this tour magnificently chronicles 400 years of history, the good and the bad, expertly. No matter how much you think you may know about Brooklyn history, I can bet there will be something new learned within the first 15 minutes of the tour. From the first-ever plane crash to one of the worst theater fires in history, this tour covers tragedies that the greatest horror writers couldn’t conceive.
The Deadly [Charming] Docent
Allison Chase led the fascinating tour in character from the moment we stepped on the trolley until our departure. But Allison’s character was not forced or fake; you could feel Allison’s passion for not just morbid history, but the accuracy of it. Some of the stories we heard were steeped in historical context, and it was not boring for a single second. The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour is not your standard full-talking tour. It’s a mixed-media adventure of some of Brooklyn’s darkest moments.
During “downtime” (the times between locations), we were edutained by mini documentaries (that were quite funny). Some of the “downtime” was filled with traffic trivia (I won a needle pen!). And other times were show-and-tell-like, with objects passed around for us to examine. But there was never a moment of silence that wasn’t purposeful. All in all, Allison’s knowledge and passion shone like the luminosity of a full moon.
Is Madame Morbid Trolley Tours Worth It?
The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour was not just a fun night out for my wife and me, but it was a delightfully dark night of edutainment. It should also be noted that ‘Mad’ Matt’s driving skills were fantastic. There was a time when I had become enamored with how Matt handled the narrow streets of Brooklyn before realizing that I needed to refocus my attention on Allison. The Madame Morbid Trolley Tour is an exceptionally fun evening of horror and history that will make you think twice next time you walk down the streets of Brooklyn. It is worth the money, and then some. There’s no better activity for a cold, dark October night than the Madame Morbid Trolley Tour.
For more information on Madame Morbid Trolley Tours, and to get your tickets, click here!
I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should have watched the Stephen King adaptation Cujo a million years ago. First of all, I was a voracious King reader in middle school. The other thing I was obsessed with during those years was Friends. You know, the show that hinges a major episode’s subplot on Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) watching Cujo for the first time. Whatever the reason was, I never got around to it, but I’m rectifying that oversight now.
What is Cujo About?
Cujo tells a relatively simple story. Donna Trenton’s (Dee Wallace) a housewife who’s cheating on her husband Vic (Daniel Hugh-Kelly) with local handyman Steve (Christopher Stone). There’s no accounting for taste, because Vic is 10 times hotter and Steve doesn’t own a bed frame. Look, Donna. I know Vic has that awful David Hasselhoff hair, but I promise the 1980s will end sooner or later. It’ll be OK.
Donna’s attempted termination of this affair ultimately leads to its discovery. Amid this drama, her car breaks down at a mechanic’s isolated farmhouse, trapping her and her son, Tad (Danny Pintauro). You see, the mechanic’s dog, Cujo, freshly christened with rabies, is patrolling the area and attacking everything in sight.
Dee Wallace Is Cujo’s Not-So-Secret Weapon
It would be impossible to start a worthwhile review of Cujo without praising Dee Wallace. The woman is a genre icon, naturally. Think about this: She had only appeared in seven theatrical movies before starring in Cujo. Four of those movies are The Stepford Wives, The Hills Have Eyes, E.T., and The Howling. But this woman didn’t become an icon simply by accidentally stumbling into some iconic titles. She is simply terrific as Donna, using her darting eyes and taut expression to deliver oodles of subtext. You instantly get the sense of how trapped she feels by marriage and motherhood without her uttering a single word.
A good performance is vital, here. Because there’s a hell of a lot of drama to get through before she’s trapped in that damn car. But Wallace instantly shoves you into Donna’s perspective, whether you like it or not. This makes it all the more potent when she is menaced by Cujo. Her desperate attempts for survival, also impeccably performed, have true weight because she seems like a real person. She is also given an incredible scene partner in Danny Pintauro. The future Who’s the Boss? star, who was only six when shooting Cujo, has a perfect everychild quality. His innocence heightens the peril. But so does that fact that he is just as irritating as every six-year-old you’ve ever met.
This movie truly captures how annoying it must be to be stuck in a life-and-death situation with a child. This is a compliment, I swear! Donna is worn down by every aspect of the situation, including her own son’s inability to cope with it. And this ratchets up the tension even further, to an almost unbearable degree.
Cujo Is a Mixed Bag, But Worthwhile Overall
The movie doesn’t work if Cujo himself doesn’t work, and at first I was real worried that he wouldn’t. In the first half, the St. Bernards that play Cujo onscreen are often shown to be wagging their tails in delight. Which kind of undercuts the reality of the situation, I’d say. But the editing and the special effects step in to fix what animal training couldn’t. The attack scenes in the second half are constructed with quick cuts that never let you get too much purchase. It’s a good approach for keeping viewers off-kilter.
Also, Cujo becomes less and less recognizable as a cuddly canine the further the movie gets. It’s a simple trick, really. He ends up getting coated with more and more slime. Saliva, pus, blood, and what have you. This is good for making him feel like a true movie monster. Plus, it’s a good mirror for the sliminess inside the car as it gets covered in sweat, blood, and grime.
The second half of the movie ultimately works like gangbusters. It’s a shame that Cujo is too cowardly to get Donna and Tad in the car before the halfway point. This decision is somewhat faithful to the book’s structure as I remember it. However, it diminishes the weight of the long days that they spend in the car. We really need to feel that crushing stretch of time, and we don’t. When Tad is suffering from dehydration, it’s not a gut punch. Honestly, I just found myself asking, “Already?” It’s good that they gave the movie a happier ending, because the classic grimdark Stephen King finale wouldn’t have landed.
Is Cujo Worth Watching in 2026?
At the end of the day, Cujo is a solid movie and I’m glad I finally watched it. However, it’s not such a stone-cold classic that I’m not at least a little intrigued by that upcoming Netflix remake…
