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.
Haunted house stories are a staple in the horror genre. But it’s not often that a haunted house film digs its way under your skin and stays there long after the credits roll. Enter Recluse, celebrating its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.
A Disturbing Return Home Fuels Recluse’s Story
Joan Wyatt, a young and troubled audio engineer, is called back to her childhood home following a bizarre accident in which her father, the famous artist Lawrence Wyatt, was engulfed in flames and left in critical condition. Joan has been estranged from her father for quite some time, so when his longtime housekeeper Lydia leaves a voicemail telling her that he likely doesn’t have a lot of time left, she ignores it. But then Lawrence himself calls, telling Joan that he’s been seeing her mother—who disappeared when Joan was a child—around the house.
Joan arrives to find Lydia armed with a crossbow to ward off Lawrence’s obsessive fans. Her father is bed-bound with severe burns, and is being cared for by a hired nurse around Joan’s age named Emily. Lawrence, who notoriously experimented with psychedelics and occult practices during his career, is barely coherent and keeps his face concealed underneath a crude plaster mask. He keeps asking about his “little spider.” It’s disturbing and deeply upsetting, especially since Joan already has a lifetime of trauma associated with the house. Now that she’s back, she begins to suspect that these “ghosts” aren’t metaphorical. Lawrence was not a good man… but something even more sinister may be lurking in the house.
Henry Chaisson Reinvents the Haunted House Formula
Recluse, written and directed by Henry Chaisson, is a masterfully crafted debut feature that takes familiar elements of the haunted house genre—like a remote mansion as the setting, traumatic family secrets, and supernatural mischief—and twists them into something fresh and, well, twisted.
Sasha Frolova Leads an Exceptional Ensemble Cast
Sasha Frolova stars as Joan, delivering a performance that is both believable and compelling. She’s easy to root for throughout the film, especially as she contends with her father’s unwaveringly loyal housekeeper Lydia, brilliantly played by Toby Poser. Mia Vallet’s portrayal of Emily is also noteworthy, commanding attention from her first appearance all the way to the end. Kimball Farley plays Lydia’s son and Joan’s friend Todd with the perfect balance of levity and tension. Frankie Seratch is enjoyable to watch as the opportunistic nepo baby art dealer Tom. Rounding out the cast is Xander Berkeley as Lawrence; even from behind a mask, his performance is intense and chilling. Berkeley even provided some of his own art to be used in the film.
Sound Design and Cinematography Create Unrelenting Terror
The cast is far from the film’s only strength, though. Sound design by Matthew Rollins will have you death-gripping your seat in the best way, and serves as an integral part of the story itself. Production designer Yulanda Yo-Rong Shieh and art director Ana María Kalvo absolutely nailed the set and made the Wyatt family mansion simultaneously sprawling and claustrophobic.
Finally, we have the beautiful and (appropriately) haunting cinematography by Bryce Holden, supported by the editing prowess of Nik Voytas, Josh Lobo, and Henry Chaisson. Not only did they maintain an air of unrelenting suspense throughout the entire film, but they also executed some of the most disturbing and bone-chilling jump scares I’ve seen in recent years.
Seriously: One of those jump scares made me feel physically ill. You’ll know it when you see it for yourself.
Recluse had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2026.
One of my favorite special interests is the Mormon-millionaire-real-estate-tycoon-owned Skinwalker Ranch. Mormon millionaire Brandon Fugal has crafted a wonderfully apophenic history in his post-Bigelow ownership. His perfectly curated release of pseudo-information through the lens of a History Channel TV show did wonders not just for his wallet but for docu-dramas as a whole. Fugal did what The Curse of Oak Island could have only wished to accomplish. BUT, three years before Joseph Smith’s teachings made their way to the Uinta Basin, a group of filmmakers set out to capitalize on one of America’s strangest phenomena. Skinwalker Ranch is a film that is as perplexing as it is insufferable.
Skinwalker Ranch: Missing Children, UFOs, and Found Footage Chaos
In 2010, Hoyt’s (Jon Gries) son disappeared in a blinding ball of light. Some time later, Modern Defense Enterprises sent a team of experts to Hoyt’s property to study what happened to Cody (Nash Lucas). Upon arriving at the property, MDE sets up a reality-TV-like number of security cameras in the hopes of finding anything. But what they found may just make them wish they hadn’t set foot on this property.
The Real History Behind Skinwalker Ranch Lore
As stated, the story of and behind Skinwalker Ranch is one of my favorite bits of Americana. From the Sherman family’s story, through Robert Bigelow’s ownership, all the way to its current Mormon occupation, the history behind Skinwalker Ranch runs deep. Dire wolves, dino beavers, and disappearing orbs, oh my! Whether you believe in the stories or not, Skinwalker Ranch is one of America’s biggest pieces of lore.
One of my favorite theories is that a resource-observing beacon was placed by, for lack of a better term, aliens when Pangea existed. Throughout the years, the dissolution of Pangea shifted the location of where the aliens placed the beacon to what is now considered the Mesa on the northern portion of Skinwalker Ranch’s property. The said beacon could very possibly be what causes the mysterious 1.6 GHz signal on the ranch, or why there are so many UAP sightings around the Mesa.
How Skinwalker Ranch Wastes Its Fascinating Premise
Now, I know all of this has been discovered post-Skinwalker Ranch (movie), but Hunt for the Skinwalker and Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp (and James T. Lacatski for Pentagon), had already been released. Dino beavers on Skinwalker Ranch had already been discussed. The true terror of Skinwalker Ranch had been disseminated by three highly regarded UFOlogists. So, for writer Adam Ohler (and story by Devin McGinn, Steve Berg, Ken Bretschneider, and Murphy Michaels) to craft such a plain story that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what makes Skinwalker Ranch even slightly interesting is confounding. It feels as if the writer/story creators heard the term “Skinwalker Ranch” and decided to focus on that, and that alone. Skinwalker Ranch has zero world-building, and hopes that the title is titillating enough to get someone to click ‘play’.
The singular great aspect about Skinwalker Ranch is the casting of Jon Gries (Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite) and Michael Horse (Deputy Hawk in Twin Peaks). Gries does enough carrying in this film to make up for dropping that winning pass. And it’s just wonderful to see Michael Horse in a film, even if he’s cast as a token Native American whose only purpose is to make the writers feel better for capitalizing on Native American lore. Besides that, the acting in Skinwalker Ranch is beyond atrocious. In fact, the acting feels so unnatural that I honestly thought the team from MDE was going to turn out to be the aliens that kidnapped Cody. Turns out, the story doesn’t even attempt to be 1% as clever as that.
A Massive Found Footage Failure
Skinwalker Ranch not only fails at being an interesting sci-fi horror flick, but it also fails at being a found footage flick. Full of awful CGI, bad acting, and an even worse script, Skinwalker Ranch exists as nothing more than a time waster. In fact, Travis Walton’s experience in Fire in the Sky would be more entertaining to take part in than watching even two minutes of this film–I’d rather get dry probed by the Hyperboreans than ever think of this movie again.
