A24 Has Just Released a ‘Haunting’ The Shining Replacement

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A24’s new film, Backrooms, just premiered to very positive reviews. Many early viewers are already drawing comparisons between it and Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror film, The Shining.

The Backrooms is a unique horror project stemming from a popular internet story, or ‘creepypasta,’ that first appeared on 4chan. These online tales described endless, unsettling spaces with pale yellow walls, and eventually inspired a web series created by visual effects artist Kane Parsons, known online as Kane Pixels. In 2023, A24 Films announced they were making a full-length movie based on the series, with Parsons directing. What’s particularly remarkable about Backrooms is that Parsons was only 19 years old when the announcement was made, making him A24’s youngest ever feature film director by a significant amount.

What Early Reviewers Are Saying About Backrooms

Part Creepypasta, Part Haunted House, Pure Horror

The movie Backrooms premiered on May 29th to rave reviews, earning an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Most critics agree that the director successfully adapted the popular internet horror idea into a full-length film while maintaining its original unsettling qualities. Reviewers particularly praised the film’s atmosphere, visuals, sound design, and its ability to make everyday locations feel subtly off-kilter. Instead of relying heavily on sudden scares, Backrooms creates a sense of dread by focusing on empty spaces, stark lighting, and a persistent feeling of being disconnected from reality.

While initial reactions to the film have been largely positive, some reviewers have noted a slight dip in quality as the story progresses, feeling the atmosphere and visual style are more effective than the plot and lore. A few also think the characters and emotional connections aren’t quite as strong as the film’s impressive visuals. However, overall, the response has been remarkably good for a movie based on an internet horror story, with many seeing it as a well-made and promising debut rather than just a fleeting trend.

What Backrooms Has in Common with The Shining

Mazes, Dreamlike Horror, and More

The internet phenomenon Backrooms and the classic film The Shining might seem very different at first. One comes from online creepypasta and the unsettling feeling of empty spaces, while the other is a famous haunted hotel story. However, they share a key similarity: both use a bizarre setting to mirror a character’s declining mental health. In Backrooms, the endless, looping rooms seem to be created by the protagonist’s alcoholism and unhappiness, reflecting his inner turmoil. Some critics have pointed out this is similar to The Shining, where the Overlook Hotel appears to prey on the characters’ trauma and addictions. Both works also create a sense of unease and disorientation through surreal, dreamlike horror.

The settings in both stories amplify their unsettling similarities. While the Overlook Hotel isn’t a physically endless maze like the Backrooms, Kubrick portrays it as a place with a confusing layout that disorients those who stay there. The Backrooms takes this idea further, trapping characters in what feels like an infinite network of yellow hallways and unnatural rooms that defy logic. In both, the main challenge becomes escaping. Those in the Backrooms can’t find a way out, and the Torrance family is isolated at the Overlook by a winter storm. Ultimately, both stories turn the building into a prison, allowing the horror to build and take control.

With overwhelmingly positive reviews so far, Parsons’s first film as director is expected to easily earn back its $10 million production cost, and likely make a profit, as horror movies usually have a dedicated fanbase. More importantly, unlike Season 3 of American Horror Stories, Backrooms seems poised to satisfy fans of the original online story that inspired it.

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2026-05-30 00:04