20-Year-Old Director Adapts Backrooms Internet Story Into A24 Film

A 2019 post on 4chan described a portal into empty hallways after a user responded to a photo of a vacant carpeted room in a former HobbyTown store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The post introduced the term "noclip," borrowed from video-game mechanics, and suggested that entering the wrong area could place a person in a parallel space known as the Backrooms.

Kane Parsons, then 13 and living in Sonoma County, California, began developing the idea into a series of YouTube videos that he started uploading in 2022. The videos have accumulated hundreds of millions of views.

Parsons adapted the material into a feature-length script. A24 acquired the project and cast Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark, the owner of a struggling furniture store, and Renate Reinsve as his therapist, Mary Kline. The film is set for wide theatrical release in late May 2026 with a reported production budget of nearly $10 million.

The story follows several characters who enter a dimension of fluorescent-lit corridors where furniture is embedded in walls and floors and hostile creatures appear. Much of the film relies on first-person footage to convey disorientation rather than on conventional plot turns.

Parsons taught himself 3-D animation using free open-source software after receiving a hand-me-down laptop before middle school. He previously posted videos inspired by the anime series Attack on Titan and the video game Portal. The film draws on the creepypasta tradition of user-generated horror stories that expand from single images, similar to earlier examples such as Slenderman.

A24 expects the existing online audience for Parsons's YouTube series to support ticket sales during the summer release window.